There are few things quite as emblematic of late stage capitalism than the concept of “planned obsolescence”.

  • zhunk@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    For incandescent lightbulbs, his point was that bulbs can burn fast and bright or low and slow, and standardizing on a lifespan of 1000 hours was a sweet spot between performance and longevity. For example, it makes 60W bulbs from different manufacturers more interchangeable and less prone to tricky marketing gimmicks like a “long life” 60W bulb that’s dimmer.

    • fulano
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Thank you for explaining this concept. I still don’t see how it can be considered planned obsolescence, though. It looks more like a matter of optimizing the output and doing a tradeoff for more performance.

      I see planned obsolescence as artificially limiting the longevity or repairability of a product, without any benefit at all, but with the intention of making it less durable. A good example could be locked smartphones without updates.

      But perhaps, the definition of planned obsolescence is broader than i think.