Planned Obsolescence

What are some cases of a company doing this?

I work at an office doing IT work, and recently all versions of Microsoft Office 2010 are having issues out of nowhere forcing us to use 2016.

A lot of electric razors have their rechargeable batteries soldered into them to force people without the tools to replace the whole device when only the battery has died. Fuck you Norelco.

Someone linked a great old website here a while back with a huge list (might have been a wiki?) of examples of planned obsolescence, but I can never remember the name.

The .docx format itself was an attempt to force people off of the last decent version of Office 2003.

Microsoft built its riches from forced obsolescence, whether it was their own software being broken or not.

Pretty much anything released by Apple.

Is blackberry the least pozzed "smart" phone out there? I don't really track much in mobile.

I know it's not strictly technology, but pillows
fucking things are designed to go flat ~1 year forcing you to buy a whole new fucking pillow

It bacame so obvious when they started naming releases after year, instead of version number.
And maybe it's just a coincidence, but their last good OS was DOS and pic.

The biggest offender by far.

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It's been a while since I used MS Office but if I remember correctly it is possible to save .doc instead of default .docx format in post 2003 Office. You even get warring saying that some new features will not work if you save it in .doc format.


That is not entirely true, I am using same pillow for about 10 years now. It was top quality pillow when it was bought and it is absolutely amazing to sleep on it.

windows os in general
online only videogames

Pick literally any IoT or "cloud" crap.
There was a case of Revolv and their "smart hub" and other stuff, which depended on an external service. Revolv was later acquired by Jewgle/Alphabet, who in turn shut everything down and made everything cease to work.

Also, literally any console game with online multiplayer. Especially anything by EA; those fuckers pull the plug on the server in less than 1 year or bust. Bonus points if the game has no local multiplayer. Even more points if online multiplayer is the only mode available or the game requires online for single player and could be played offline.

Additionally, there are/were plenty of movie sites with online DRM that let you download movies. When the site dies, your movies stop working. Some did gie you a chance to keep them, but usually you had a ridiculously small window and it was opt-in, so it still counts.

You can also save as .odt and it'll work in everything

Well if you have the dosh to drop on a nice pillow that's nice and all. Those of us too poor to afford high quality pillows that is to say most people get shitty pillows which suck ass.

It took me a while to realize, jesus christ that can't be true.

Thank G-d everyone still accepts .doc and some even exclusively .doc


Least pozzed sure, its share prices are pretty negative

I've got a masters in supply chain management and worked in within SCM since forever. I can say that almost every company out there producing electronics or consumables does this on some level. Some more than others.

This is reflected in their supply forecasts where we the planners of the logistics for any company see a continuing pattern.

Basically in a nutshell you can explain it as this. Big corps order their components about 12 months ahead of time, some components are ordered up to 24 months ahead of time and factories, warehouser, assembly lines etc. are all prepared for the next batch the closer we come to manufacturing date.

The iPhone is a good example as many know it. What we can call absolute obsoleteness is about 4 years. Hence you saw a massive switch to the iPhone 6 where the 4s, 5 and 5s served as "middle launches" . A similar pattern can be seen in most electronic products. And if you want to dig into it you can look at Samsung etc. and see when their product models spike. I.e. new tv models etc.

Should be more like android with its ever growing complaints :^)

All modern handheld electronics have some special snowflake lithium battery that is a such a pain in the fucking ass to replace that you might as well get the next model.

Maybe, as far as mainstream brands go. But BlackBerry OS is more proprietary than Android is legally allowed to become, so be careful.

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You spend a third of your life sleeping, better offer yourself the best you can buy: pure wool blankets , brushed cotton sheets, premium mattress from century old company, premium pillow, all natural no synthetic, i do not count when it comes to my sleep.
And i am far from well off.

You remind me of those faggots who buy overpriced things, like iDevices, and then go "user you have so much money!" every time that I have to talk with them.
It is all about having good personal financial plan and being able to stick to it instead of impulsively buying shitty status symbols. It literally allows me to enjoy my life as much as people who have 10 times higher monthly income.
Buying good pillow, good mattress and nice thick piece of memory foam that I used to make custom topper were one of best purchasing decisions that I made.

Are we talking $30 or $100 or more?

If you can suggest a nice pillow for under $30 I'd be all over that. But I couldn't come up with $100 or more if my life depended on it, and I am not even in debt. I imagine many people are in my same position, perhaps many here too even if they won't admit it.

I literally haven't been able to find a decent pillow since I was a kid.

I bought 3 of them before finding the right one, i spent 150 euro in total.
srs business.

Check your local brands and pick the least crappy/discount one, it takes a few nights to know a pillow...

Now I know you're trying to bait fam, but the trends on both are slowly going up. : ^ )