Connected Devices

Planned Obsolescence 1 The Engineered Expiration – Part 1: How Designed Decay Became the Core Business Model 2 The Engineered Expiration – Part 2: Software Lock-Ins and the Digital Decay of Connected Devices 3 The Engineered Expiration – Part 3: Dismantling the Fix-It Culture Through Planned Repair Prevention 4 The Engineered Expiration – Part 4: From Corporate Profit to Corporate Crime: The Environmental Cost of Artificial Limits 5 The Engineered Expiration – Part 5: The Regulatory Tide: Right to Repair and the Global Push for Longevity ← Series Home The Invisible Kill Switch Programmed into Hardware While physical deterioration remains a common mechanism of planned obsolescence, modern electronics introduce a new, more insidious form: software-induced obsolescence. In contemporary consumer electronics, planned obsolescence can be literally programmed into devices, especially those that are networked, through predetermined breaking points, or Sollbruchstelle. Unlike physical wear and tear, software decay means that a product can remain perfectly functional physically but becomes vulnerable, useless, or incompatible because software support is withdrawn or degraded. ...