Planned obsolescence and repairability
Design & Technology · Key Stage 3 · The School
What planned obsolescence means
PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE means designing a product on purpose to stop working, or to become outdated or uneconomical to repair, after a certain point. This pushes the customer toward buying a replacement sooner than the actual technology would otherwise require.
How it can be built in
A battery sealed for good inside a device, rather than user-replaceable, turns the whole device into waste once that battery wears out — even though every other part still works fine. Special screws needing a specialist tool put people off opening a product at all. Software updates that quietly slow older hardware can push a customer toward buying new, even though the old hardware still physically works.
The ethical and environmental question
Planned obsolescence creates a genuine tension. It can support a business's ongoing income, and in some cases genuinely funds new innovation. But it also raises waste, raises cost to the customer, and uses up more resources making replacements. A "RIGHT TO REPAIR" movement has grown up in response. It pushes for products designed to be opened, checked and repaired by their owners, or by an independent repairer, not only by the original maker.
A smartphone battery could be designed two genuinely different ways. Design A seals the battery inside a glued case. Only the maker can replace it, at high cost, or it simply cannot be replaced at all. When the battery wears out after a few years of daily charging, the whole phone becomes useless — even though its screen, camera and processor all still work perfectly. Design B uses a removable battery, held in with simple clips. The user can replace it for a small cost, in minutes. When it wears out, only the battery needs swapping. The rest of the phone stays in use for years longer. Design A is usually cheaper and a touch slimmer to make. Design B is more repairable, and makes far less electronic waste over the phone's true possible life. Neither is an accident of manufacturing. Both are real, deliberate design choices. Reasonable people, weighing cost, looks, repairability and waste, can land on different answers about which one is right.