Ask HN: Do you think planned obsolescence still exists?

9 points by is-is-odd 4 years ago | 14 comments

I have an iPhone X that was blazing fast and had zero problems until (almost exactly) the launch of the iPhone 13 and iOS 15.

So is it the case that iOS 15 demands just enough more from my phone to make it lose its snappiness? And by that I mean, sometimes there will be input lag when I’m using the touchscreen, random apps taking too long to load/crashing, etc. Minor things, but the stark contrast between now and 3 months ago is shocking.

The surprising part is iOS 15 was a minor update - there are no features that I would conclude demand more processing power. So is Apple just not optimizing their iOS releases for a 3 year old phone? Or is this planned obsolescence?

otagekki 4 years ago |

Yes, as strong as before, if not more. IMO Gates' Law -- the inverse of Moore's law -- doesn't help either. I have plenty of examples, from those pieces of software and appliances I use everyday:

- Power went on and off in our building for several minutes. That obviously turned off my always-on printer and all other devices. Now for some reason the printer won't turn on. All my other devices like my TV, Raspberry Pi and desktop computers plugged 24/7 and still work perfectly after the incident.

- Some appliances like vacuum cleaners and fridges and freezers made recently tend to break faster. And although they consume less watts of power when used, their relatively frequent need to be replaced generates more waste. In comparison, our 30 year old (I'm 28!) fridge is still functioning.

- About mobile devices, I have a Samsung tablet and an old Iphone whose batteries or screens can't be trivially replaced: I replaced the battery of my tablet now for some reason the touchscreen is messed up making it unusable although the display still works ok. A still older Android phone from 2014 won't install updates or most recent software. Not so long ago, Apple had been known to deliberatly slow down old devices, but no longer know to what extent that is still true.

- Car parts. Lots of progress have been made regarding fuel economy but Renault cars IMO could be made more reliable and user-friendly: changing a lighbulb on the Renault Modus requires you to disassemble the bumper [1] ... Changing the battery on a hybrid car... I'd rather not know.

[1] http://www.fiches-auto.fr/articles-auto/entretien-automobile...

vimy 4 years ago | |

Your 30 year old fridge is also very energy inefficient compared to newer ones.

captainbland 4 years ago |

Sure, otherwise the battery would be easily replaceable like in some older phones. It hardly seems like a coincidence that a crucial component which significantly degrades roughly in time with the product cycle also happens to be glued into the chassis of many modern smart phones or otherwise rendered inaccessible. While they're not impossible to replace, doing so is clearly a high enough barrier to prevent most users from attempting it.

retrac 4 years ago |

The fact is that nearly every smartphone or tablet in the last 5 years, even $80 discount models, could run the latest Android. Or full Linux desktop.

They're discarded by the millions each year for being stuck on some old useless software version. Updates for a three year old phone is more than some do. I think it suggests the manufacturers have no intention of it being used more than a year or two out.

muzani 4 years ago |

With Android, definitely. Entire paradigms are deprecated as it updates. For example, it's easier to enforce privacy/security holes on all Android 10 phones and above as opposed to every Android device in existence. Or do things like file system policy changes.

I don't think it's designed to sell more phones, just an easier way of reducing scope.

Also my experience with programming TV set up boxes is that it's more pragmatic too. Some code was built for old set up boxes with no graphics cards and no versioning. The new ones support 4K, Android, lots of sexy stuff. But the code for the oldest boxes didn't support ES6 or, say, anything above Angular.JS and jQuery. So now you have code written for the minimum hardware even when run on expensive, cutting edge stuff. Planned obsolescence would have saved a lot of trouble and resulted in better experiences.

Smart TVs probably operate the same way, which is why the YouTube built into my TV freezes all the time, but Netflix runs fine on the same hardware.

I'd imagine some similar decision making goes into IoT too.

0xFreebie 4 years ago |

It absolutely still exists. Here is a chart that shows how regularly it happens.

https://www.statista.com/chart/5824/ios-iphone-compatibility...

WhisperingShiba 4 years ago | |

Did you remove your post on

>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29233852

Or were you removed? I think you are onto something, low key. But it maybe suggesting foul play is grounds for removal on this site now.

0xFreebie 4 years ago | | |

Naw I removed it. Just idle speculation. I'll put it in my about if you want to repost.

mikewarot 4 years ago |

The obsolescence isn't planned, it's a feature of embedded growth obligations. You have to keep growing, even if everyone already has a smartphone, you have to sell them a new one, keep increasing your market share, and profits.

The push for more and more features, instead of reliability and stability, is driven by the desire for sales at all costs.

hulitu 4 years ago | |

You don't grow until you explode so i don't see why other things shall always grow.

gerardnico 4 years ago |

I got still an iPhone 6s at home (with a new battery) and it works perfectly on 14

hazza_n_dazza 4 years ago |

LED light bulbs that die after six months? yep it still exists

warpspin 4 years ago |

Definitely exists for TVs and it seems to me the timeframe is shrinking still :-)

nicbou 4 years ago |

Yes. Think of airpods and their unreplaceable batteries for instance.