I can somewhat recall when I first heard someone unashamedly state that 'planned obsolescence' had been a mainstay of the American Automobile industry since it's earliest days. Even then, and I believe this was in my junior high school days, something about that seemed strangely inconsistent with what I thought a business should set out to do. With the Auto industry, at least until the last couple decades, being a model on which many new companies sought to build theirs, how many others industries have this at the core of their business plan? The software industry certainly comes to mind. The PC industry is perhaps the most obvious example - have you ever bought a PC and not felt that surely within a month a new model would be out that would make you feel some level of buyers remorse? Records, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD's, not to mention a bunch of early digital formats - all gone. How many video formats have come and gone in your lifetime, in your kid's lifetime? Is BluRay more likely to follow the path of VHS or BetaMax - does it matter?...they are both extinct. I was in the electronics business in the early 90's and can remember using one of the first MP3 players and realizing that every other SKU in our current lineup was "obsolete". The fact that every other person in America has an iPod reaffirms my belief that in ten years they will be an exhibit at a museum. Think - Palm Pilot, remember those?..check the back of your bottom desk draw there is probably one rattling around in there somewhere.
Constant innovation applied towards a sustainable and fully forward compatible product or service must replace planned obsolescence at the core of our business plans for the future.
References:
- ^ a b c "Computer Electronics : Blu-Ray". ComputerInfoWeb.com. 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-20.
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