Built in Obselescence - does this wind you up?

[Defenbaker]

I've placed this in AIBU for traffic, as I'm interested to know if others feel similarly to me about this subject.

Over the years I've become very aware of the notion of built in obselescence, and the fact that manufacturers have a vested interest in ensuring that products do not last much beyond the guarantee period, so as to encourage future sales. The history of this goes way back to the invention of the electric lightbulb... early versions had the potential to last decades, but the manufacturers deliberately tweaked the design so that lightbulbs would fail and need replacing regularly. Ironically this is less of an issue now, with low energy bulbs and long life versions available, but I think that built in obselescence is still very much favoured by manufacturers, especially those who produce household appliances. It is definitely an issue with technology, where things change at such a rapid pace.

I have a Samsung Galaxy tablet that has started misbehaving. It's 4 years old, and it keeps freezing when I do certain things like online banking and shopping. Messages appear, saying that the Android software needs updating and their systems may be incompatible with my device. It turns out that it's not possible to download the latest version of Android, unless I upgrade the software on the tablet first... which apparently is nigh on impossible to do! Grhhh!!! I've been happy with the tablet until this happened, and feel it's such a waste if time and money getting a new one, because physically the tablet is fine, but it seems I will be forced to replace it, as there is so much that I need to do online, especially during a pandemic.

So, what I'm asking is - AIBU to feel annoyed that built in obselescence is so rampant?

Also, if any techie types have any advice re my tablet issues, that would be great. Even if it's just the best way to recycle it (I kmow lots of school children are in need of tablets for home learning, but I'm unsure whether it could be upgraded for them to use).

Acorn - thing is, even applications like word, excel, and a webbrowser have more features today than they did last year (especially where they auto update, like a Web browser)..., and all the things like anti virus software etc will get updated, have bigger lists of viruses to check against and so on. Certainly there are things you can do, like remove unneeded software that is running in the corner near the clock, that should speed it up a bit.

Retrocompting hobbyists keep old (sometimes 30+ year old) computers working but that's using software that's contemporarywwith the hardware, not trying to run the latest copy of office.

That's the biggest issue today (in my view) , developers add must-have features and security updates, often with little regard to the performance on older machines, as the expectation is that people will just update their hardware when it gets too slow.

Certainly it's easier for companies to build in obselecence these days. My washing machine has an app that I use to download washing/drying programmes onto it. I'm sure that one day LG will stop supporting the app (or my phone will), and I'll have to upgrade...

Ava

Thanks

I wish those ancient word processors still existed.

If you told me 2 years ago that I'd be wishing this, I'd be stunned.

The mgmt co for my block has a "portal". They do email important stuff now because everyone said "wtf is the point of that".

Mum had to buy a washing machine recently, you can just get a regular one? Are you saying yours can only be operated by phone?

My washer has a few standard programs on a dial, but the more useful ones (like quick wash and dry) can only be downloaded by the app.

Its fine at the moment, because I like the phone pinging me when the washing is finished, but it's a good example of something that probably won't last 5-10 years... I was sucked in by the tech!

Yup pisses me right off and destroys the planet faster. "Every business exists to make money" was the first lesson in my Business Masters and it's 1000% true!

Apple are absolute fuckers for this! I used to have an ipod Touch. Loved it. I had it before smart phones were really a thing, but even when I got one, I preferred having all my music and podcasts on a separate device anyway.
I managed to get about 10 years out of it, then tried to add more music to it one day, and had to install an update but by doing so managed to kill the whole thing. I can't quite remember the details but the upshot was that I needed to download a fix but the fix would only work on newer models. So that was that, a perfectly good ipod completely unusable purely due to software updates.

@Avallamp

My washer has a few standard programs on a dial, but the more useful ones (like quick wash and dry) can only be downloaded by the app.

Its fine at the moment, because I like the phone pinging me when the washing is finished, but it's a good example of something that probably won't last 5-10 years... I was sucked in by the tech!

Oh dear

No offence but I hope people reject that kind of thing

I don't want to be facing a future where even washing machines are operated by phone.

The thing that pisses me off is it's not even built in, it's actually planned!

I had a reading device called a kobo (similar to a kindle) it literally died about a month after the warantee expired and when I investigated this seemed quite common.

My neighbour recently offered me a bunch of CDs. I didn't take them as I've no space but I think he will regret it.