Help me with my thesis - Researching consumer perceptions, obsolescence, and electronics.

[The Student]

Hello everyone,
I'm a new member looking for help with my master thesis (which I hope is within your guidelines).

I have been lurking at the community for quite a while, experiencing how insightful you all are.

I'm doing a research project focusing on consumer's perception towards the concept of obsolescence / planned obsolescence, specifically in household level electronic devices. Thus, everyone with an opinion, experience, or even just owning an electronic device is interesting to me!

As the main method used is netnography, everything is expected to happen online, preferably in written format.
So, if you would like to answer a few question as an “interview”, share opinions and experiences, or just have any question to me or my study. Please let me know!

In advance, thank you very much.

Best regards.

 

[dont whant to set it"']

Welcome to TPU.

You are asking quite a lot there.
With all due respect, no.
I speak for myself.

 

[The Student]

Thank you,

That is unfortunately, but totally understandable.

Just to clarify for other potential participants:
I do not hope it seems as a big 'task', it can all be to the degree you want to participate, and of course without any personal question if not wanted to.
I would just like to get a grasp of, whether people have experienced devices getting obsolete, or changed products on a basis of manufacturers' techniques to make you change, and which thoughts people has to that.

 

[P4-630]

You could try https://linustechtips.com/

 

[1freedude]

Who has the money, and who wants the money. Who wants to spend to get the shiny, and who wants to oil the squeaky old.

Depending on the topic and task, I do both. My PC towers are old. My laptop is newer, 10th gen intel. I update the components of both, but don't want to completely replace either. I do buy my wife newer laptops every few years, starting way back when we got married. She doesn't "play" with computers. She uses them.

Phones get software updates. Wireless technology improvements usually drive updates on the hardware.

Just a start.

Good luck

Additionally, do you know what industry/business invented planned obsolescence? A good topic to research, too

 

[Hyderz]

When you say electronic devices, are you referring to PCs, mobile phones, tablets, tvs etc or you also include things like a refrigerator, a dryer or washing machine?

 

[R0H1T]

The (consumer) electronics industry by design is based on planned or unplanned obsolescence. Though it's also true that some brands are simply awful at it like Apple, to a lesser extent Nvidia, definitely Intel & yes AMD as well.

 

[ir_cow]

Throw the tin foil hat on. No company is going to admit planned a obsolescence.

Apple might be the easiest to see in action. When new phone come out, so does a new IOS. Apple also updated the app store to only work with the newer IOS. Effectively killing any use of older iphones, ipad and laptops that can't be updated (for whatever made up reason). I'll never buy a apple product again after my iPhone 4S become obsolete once the iphone 6 came out. Couldn't download new apps and some of the ones I had stopped working due to "needing a update".

 

[R0H1T]

They're also the most notorious for overcharging on RAM, storage! How much does 16GB RAM or 512 GB NAND costs these days?

Apple Shares 2023 Environmental Progress Report Ahead of Earth Day

Apple today published its 2023 Environmental Progress Report, setting out the company's ongoing efforts to combat climate change and reduce its...

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Apple today announced that over 250 suppliers are committed to using renewable energy for all Apple production by 2030. Apple said its manufacturing...

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Given all the hype they generate about carbon neutrality they have a funny way of giving the middle finger to consumers.

 

[The Student]

Throw the tin foil hat on. No company is going to admit planned a obsolescence.

Apple might be the easiest to see in action. When new phone come out, so does a new IOS. Apple also updated the app store to only work with the newer IOS. Effectively killing any use of older iphones, ipad and laptops that can't be updated (for whatever made up reason). I'll never buy a apple product again after my iPhone 4S become obsolete once the iphone 6 came out. Couldn't download new apps and some of the ones I had stopped working due to "needing a update".

Excatly, my first take on the project description was to prove planned obsolescence which, as you say, is going to be impossible.

Thus, has the topic been changed to the consumer's perception to the "myth" of planned obsolescence. The focus area is still rather larger, to ensure that anybody have had some kind of experience, and enhance the possibility to find someone that wants to participate as well.

Apple themselves, provides a various different ways of effecting either absolute or relative obsolescence. Sometimes it is the new firmware which isn't working with the old components (according to themselves, and literature), other times do they just retire components or products to ensure that you can't repair it...

When you say electronic devices, are you referring to PCs, mobile phones, tablets, tvs etc or you also include things like a refrigerator, a dryer or washing machine?

I'm actually looking for what ever people are open to talk about, not limiting the focus area to PCs, phones, etc. I just want to be enlightened in the consumers' perspective and experiences.
Would you be willing to answer a few questions, sharing your thoughts? It can be both public available, open for discussion or private?

 

[W1zzard]

Just to confirm, OP has a @student.sdu.dk email address, so seems plausible. Still, like with all online strangers, be aware of what information you share, especially when leaving platforms that protect your IP and identity.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Product Lifecycle Management.
n obsolescence is a part of PLM.

What is the product development cycle? The basics [infographic] | Haltian

What is the new product development cycle and what does it look like? Find out more

haltian.com

Is planned obsolescence the other side of the coin of end-of-maintenance?
Obsolescence is different from poor quality, poor reliability, poor warranty, poor service, poor maintenance.
You can write a thesis on just those 4 lines above.

 

[Kyan]

From my point of view, planned/unplanned obsolescence is actually what makes the electronics market so bad. Things are hard/expensive to repair (willingly or not), or the old device can't work properly due to the age of the operating system (which is not updated by the manufacturer, or/and new apps can't run on the old device/OS) and new products are not that expensive due to mass production.
Since all devices are becoming "smart", the situation will only get worse. You can have a bad physical product, but if it requires complex software, you make it harder to repair and more prone to failures.
In fact, the elephant in the room is the consumer printer market. This is the product that has the most obvious case of planned obsolescence in the last 10 to 20 decades. And even after the case has been proven, they continue to use crappy engineering to make the printer unusable for x reasons. And I'm not talking about their low price (below manufacturing cost) with aberrant ink price. This is the worst market in electronics i know of.

 

[The Student]

From my point of view, planned/unplanned obsolescence is actually what makes the electronics market so bad. Things are hard/expensive to repair (willingly or not), or the old device can't work properly due to the age of the operating system (which is not updated by the manufacturer, or/and new apps can't run on the old device/OS) and new products are not that expensive due to mass production.
Since all devices are becoming "smart", the situation will only get worse. You can have a bad physical product, but if it requires complex software, you make it harder to repair and more prone to failures.
In fact, the elephant in the room is the consumer printer market. This is the product that has the most obvious case of planned obsolescence in the last 10 to 20 decades. And even after the case has been proven, they continue to use crappy engineering to make the printer unusable for x reasons. And I'm not talking about their low price (below manufacturing cost) with aberrant ink price. This is the worst market in electronics i know of.

Interesting point of view, which I seem to get. But don't you think that obsolescence and the shortened product lifetime also could be a driver for innovation, and if the products utilized components that would last 'forever' would just increase the product price to a level out of proportions?

The printer industry indeed has a bad reputation, where it has been very hard not to see it as a direct case of planned obsolescence.. I however think that lots of other industries are just as bad. The problem with printers is, in my mind, that we as users only experience the manufactures' prematurely shorten lifetime suddenly when the product is absolutely dead.

Product Lifecycle Management.
n obsolescence is a part of PLM.

What is the product development cycle? The basics [infographic] | Haltian

What is the new product development cycle and what does it look like? Find out more

haltian.com

Is planned obsolescence the other side of the coin of end-of-maintenance?
Obsolescence is different from poor quality, poor reliability, poor warranty, poor service, poor maintenance.
You can write a thesis on just those 4 lines above.

Planned obsolescence, might just be the end of maintenance! But wouldn't that induce a magnitude of waste we can't control?

 

[pavle]

Planned obsolescence is a product of the chosen money system wherein there's always more debt than value, so there is a push towards overproduction just to chase that value. To make the problem more appealing there is the shareholder program that promises every year higher gains and so the rat race is on.

 

[Kyan]

Interesting point of view, which I seem to get. But don't you think that obsolescence and the shortened product lifetime also could be a driver for innovation, and if the products utilized components that would last 'forever' would just increase the product price to a level out of proportions?

Yeah i get that inovation can't happen or will be slow if we keep our old product for a long time but with the direction the world is taking, innovation that make the consummer buy more thing is actually equal to the end of our technologic world. We are actually killing ourselves with our existence in our economic system, we just can't stay in that constant evolution or we have to reduce the number of human who have access to abundant product, or just the number of human at all. But it's kinda out of topic, even if it's kinda linked to it.

 

[PLAfiller]

Hm...ok, so this one's complicated I feel like. Some unwanted advise first , I also graduated in DK, dunno if you are a Dane or a foreign student, but if you wish you can check out some of these books (some) sold in the lobby of the unit that may help you sort any misconceptions about master thesis: Inside track Critical thinking and analysis, also you have been provided with a VERY detailed guide how to quote in the body of the thesis and there was a book with grey covers, something like "how to write a master thesis" ( I am not sure, I still have it at home).

Anyhow, that said, are you going to quantify any of this discussion? Any poll? Any SPSS analysis I would say think very carefully about the answers, not the questions. Questions you don't have to quantify, but if you expect people to say "yes"/ "no", that would give 0 / 1 as mathematical numbers. Not much deduction you can make on such answers. I know you mentioned "netnography" as a scientific method you have chosen and I have zero experience with it.

When you say as an "interview", you mean people contact you in PM? have you prepared any questions already?

If we were playing "word association" game, when you say "planned obsolesce" I would say "French cars" Usually a product life cycle of a car is: a model is serially produced for 10 years, then 15 years OEM spare parts, then the tooling is sold to third party players/ knock offs in Aliexpress. I will try to join the discussion in the weekend may be.

 

[The Student]

Yeah i get that inovation can't happen or will be slow if we keep our old product for a long time but with the direction the world is taking, innovation that make the consummer buy more thing is actually equal to the end of our technologic world. We are actually killing ourselves with our existence in our economic system, we just can't stay in that constant evolution or we have to reduce the number of human who have access to abundant product, or just the number of human at all. But it's kinda out of topic, even if it's kinda linked to it.

Nothing is out of topic, I appreciate every kind of personal view, experience with planned obsolescence, etc. that I can get my hands on!
Interesting and very thoughtful view! I allow my self to keep pushing and questioning, just to spark the discussion further.

Going through literature, I have experienced loads of similar views. But also found one discussion somewhere, which actually pushes the 'new' French legislative agenda, regarding the right to repair.
If we as a developed society do not evolve and innovate, we stagnate both on an economical level and on know-how. Which thereof imply that emerging nations will develop even slower, as they are following the path of 'us'. Wouldn't it therefore be a better option to keep innovate and keep consume in the level we are doing. And just increase our focus to either recycle obsolete products or how to utilize new materials which isn't as scarce as the ones we are utilizing at the moment?

Planned obsolescence is a product of the chosen money system wherein there's always more debt than value, so there is a push towards overproduction just to chase that value. To make the problem more appealing there is the shareholder program that promises every year higher gains and so the rat race is on.

We very much agree on the fact that planned obsolescence is a tool for ensuring economical gains.
But can I ask you what your perspective is on it?

Do you believe it is a widespread technique? Do you think it has increased over time? Is it a good thing, so we have a reason to keep evolving, or is it poor evil?

 

[pavle]

We very much agree on the fact that planned obsolescence is a tool for ensuring economical gains.
But can I ask you what your perspective is on it?

Do you believe it is a widespread technique? Do you think it has increased over time? Is it a good thing, so we have a reason to keep evolving, or is it poor evil?

I do not like it at all; I like/want long life of everyone and everything dear to me. And I do all I can to make things last long.
Introduced or at least made in/famous by car manufacturers p. o. is quite widespread these days in all areas of production, cars, textiles, shoes, electronics, just about anything that can be is made not well, but good enough, only to be replaced by the next fashion craze.
If one has to buy the same type of stuff every so often just to enrich the other, it's evil, of course. If there are added innovations with things (the needed ones, not innovation for the sake of innovation, those have their place in the lab that can afford them) then it is prudent to upgrade, but still remember where you came from and not just throw all the old stuff away just because it's old. It is wasteful and with that also environmentally harmful and thusly harmful to us.

 

[Shrek]

I also try and keep things running, but sometimes this is not a good idea; fixing a CRT TV/Monitor for example as they consume so much electricity.

 

[AusWolf]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know how you want us to help, but if I can answer any questions of yours, feel free to ask either here or in PM.

 

[The Student]

I do not like it at all; I like/want long life of everyone and everything dear to me. And I do all I can to make things last long.
Introduced or at least made in/famous by car manufacturers p. o. is quite widespread these days in all areas of production, cars, textiles, shoes, electronics, just about anything that can be is made not well, but good enough, only to be replaced by the next fashion craze.
If one has to buy the same type of stuff every so often just to enrich the other, it's evil, of course. If there are added innovations with things (the needed ones, not innovation for the sake of innovation, those have their place in the lab that can afford them) then it is prudent to upgrade, but still remember where you came from and not just throw all the old stuff away just because it's old. It is wasteful and with that also environmentally harmful and thusly harmful to us.

I also try and keep things running, but sometimes this is not a good idea; fixing a CRT TV/Monitor for example as they consume so much electricity.

Are you then willing to pay more for products that either have an extended warranty, known for their durability, or are you actively seeking products with a modular architecture that allows you to replace parts 'easily' by yourself?

 

[Shrek]

I will not pay for extended warentee, but will for duarability.

My garbage disposal rusted away recently and I paid a pretty penny for a stainless replacement.

 

[The Student]

I will not pay for extended warentee, but will for duarability.

My garbage disposal rusted away recently and I paid a pretty penny for a stainless replacement.

Are you actively looking for products which are expected to last longer, or is it coming as a coincidence that you suddenly stumble over a product that entail certain specifications?

 

[Shrek]

I saw the damage on the old unit and so looked what was better locally, so when I saw a stainless option, I went for it; I just didn't want to do the work more than once.

What I like best is when I locate a broken component and find the replacement part has been updated; then I feel the original problem will probably not return.