Thanks to increased and simple data collection for consumers, many companies are introducing new planned obsolescence models where they can trigger obsolescence in individual devices based on consumer location, purchasing power, interest in upgrading (ItO) or the availability of new features. A hypothetical example of Bejarane describes how a smartphone can limit its own battery capacity, processor power, or flash memory based on how many times the user searched for new models, implying that the user was interested in updating the device, and then positively reinforce that decision by making a quantifiable change in the device`s current performance. The data needed to trigger the change can be obtained not only from the smartphone itself (keyboard/touchscreen recording), but also from record providers such as social media systems and online retailers, who store each customer`s data to create more specific merchandising campaigns. Finally, since the change can be made dynamically, the consumer will assume that the device will only fail while wearing it, without being aware of the slow change in performance triggered by the previous actions. The ever-increasing demands of future generations of application systems and software can be interpreted as a more subtle type of planned obsolescence. Previous generation hardware often does not work or does not work well with newer software versions because they were written according to the capabilities of the currently available hardware. This is often used as an excuse for not providing system software upgrades after a short period of time, especially in the Android mobile phone market. It`s hard to find up-to-date data on this if you don`t count the large number of user complaints in various online forums. A 2011 study (theunderstatement.com, 2011) analyzed the speed of the Android system version for 18 different mobile phones in the US market at the time: The shortening of the replacement cycle has critics and defenders.

Philip Kotler asserts: “Much of what is called planned obsolescence is the operation of competing and technological forces in a free society – forces that lead to ever better goods and services.” [31] Another example of planned obsolescence is the use of older versions of software (e.g., intentionally rendering YouTube`s Android app)[24] unusable, even though they would be technically capable of continuing to function as intended. Defense against laziness – There is a saying that all programmers are lazy. The truth is that programmers want to program; They come to the field because they love to create, but hate repetition. Programmers love automation, but hate what can`t be automated. Thus, programmers tend to do more enjoyable tasks like writing new code and learning new languages, but ignore other important tasks like updating libraries and refactoring code to fix non-critical bugs. In particular, they avoid the documentation and development work required to support fundamental infrastructure changes. Your job will be to advocate for significant safety changes without alienating or irritating the team. The European Union is also concerned about this practice. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the EU`s consultative body[37], announced in 2013 that it was considering “a total ban on planned obsolescence”. Replacing products designed to stop working within two to three years of purchase is a waste of energy and resources and creates pollution. [38] The EESC organised a roundtable in Madrid in 2014 on “best practices in the field of intrinsic obsolescence and collaborative consumption”, which called for sustainable consumption to be made a consumer right in EU legislation. [39] Carlos Trias Pinto, President of the EESC`s Consultative Commission on Industrial Change[40], advocates “the introduction of a labelling system indicating the shelf life of a product, so that consumers can choose whether they prefer to buy a cheap product or a more expensive and sustainable product”.

[41] Technology transfer as a discourse has provided incremental responses to new problems.