Made to Break pt 2

What is death - dating?
Death-dating is a strategy for manufacturers to create a product that would essentially break down after three years of use.

My friend bought a MacBook in 2004 and recently his screen went blank and the battery went dead. When he went to the Apple store to get it looked at, the technician said that MacBook models after year 2003 has a warranty that insures buyers for a free tune up (or in his case, fix the MacBook entirely) because it was noted that those models were more susceptible to random damages. My friend's situation reminds me of death-dating in that manufacturers purposefully created products that would break down after few years of use. In Apple's case, they were nice enough to offer free damage control - which would regularly cost around a grand if there was no insurance.

So why would anyone create such a thing called "death-dating"?
Well, the Commerce Department in WWII set up a minimum requirement for a durable good at three years, which means that all goods must last at least 3 years. But why not more? Since consumers are 'trained' to have psychological obsolescence for style, they are constantly looking for the next better, cooler, updated models of technology. Once the durable good breaks down, consumers HAVE to get another good but a better one. Stafford believed that "purposeful design for product failure is unethical" (Slade 164). Although I do agree with him on this, because of obsolescence of planning and style has made society into materialistic fiends, I think it's uncontrollable at this point. I do believe that there is a cycle of planned obsolescence between the manufacturers and consumers. Manufacturers purposefully use death-dating as a strategy to have consumers keep buying new things which would increase their profits and income. And because manufacturers embedded the idea of "cool" behind new things, consumers have a planned obsolescence in buying new technologies.

But isn't death-dating hurting the industry's reputation?
Who would want to buy a product that would only last them 3 years? There's a new craze for e-books (Kindle, Nook, iPad etc). Amazon has already come up with 3 different versions of their e-book, Kindle. E-book competitors are constantly coming up with new innovative designs so it entices consumers to choose their product over their competitors. There was a recent news article that advised people on which e-books to buy and not buy. Amazon has introduced several different versions of Kindle in that the first version was merely a "test-run" to see if it would be popular, its durability, and its effectiveness in the product. Well it was certaintly popular, effective and a lot of readers took a liking to the product but was it durable? Did it last? Apparently not, since they have created new versions with better features. I feel that if a product from a certain company keeps on breaking, then no one would want to buy them. A key advice to fellow consumers is that to always get insurance on technologies because they tend to break or malfunction randomly!! Or in this case.. only last for three years :(