Planned Obsolescence

Planned or ‘built-in obsolescence’ in industrial design is the expectation of a product’s limited useful life- whether that is due to it falling out of consumer favor or fashion or its functional life. This type of product life cycle planning also has potential benefits for a producer because the consumer is under pressure to purchase upgrades or a completely new product.

Marketers almost always expect a product to become obsolete, and design it to the expected longevity, which is called value engineering. Realistically, most products can be built with higher-grade components, but in many cases are not because this would impose an unnecessary cost on the purchaser and limit future sales for producers. The downside to value engineering is lower consumer confidence associated with product deterioration and inferior quality.

Software companies use value engineering or planned obsolescence as they are continually working on applications to become more robust or offer greater functionality. Upgrades, added value, and improvements in form and function are expected by consumers. Although this can be a problem for many users when older software versions are no longer supported or when new hardware is purchased that no longer contains proper code for running older applications. A great deal of criticism has been voiced by consumers as they view this kind of planned obsolescence as a way to force new purchases. In the case of network connectivity, where continued development work is necessary to prevent malicious attackers and software that protects system security and viability, consumers are accepting of new costs for added protections.