Planned Obsolescence

The rate of release of technology and the consumer life cycle vs the sustainability for our planetary future needs to be seriously addressed by the monolith the hippy Steve Jobs “counter culture” has created.

Planned obsolescence is the spectre of our planet. Last year when my IPAD 1 died I pried it open and replaced the battery. It remains my wife’s favorite tool to show her portfolio. So I bought a used ipad2 that I take hand written notes on and used it to complete my graduate work. It  carries a library of PDFs.  Last fall I was proud of my self for all the trees I was saving. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. This past year I’ve been examining my consumer behavior and “thinking different”.

I regret wasting tens of thousands of dollars in my lifetime chasing the next bit of new technology when functionality has only increased marginally. I’m one of millions. The rate of release of technology and the consumer life cycle vs the sustainability for our planetary future needs to be seriously addressed by the monolith the hippy Steve Jobs “counter culture” has created. We need to “think different” not just about the devices or the way we do computing – but also the wider impact of the unmonetized ecosystems the technology relies on for its manufacture. I’ve owned and thrown away (or sold for a pittance, recycled ect) a Mac se – Mac Portable – Powerbook 165c – 2 Newtons- Macintosh 2 vx -Mac Color Classic an original iMac – iMac HD (the grey one) 3 desktop G3s – an original OSX Server, a Powermac G4 and  G5 and at that point I stopped buying Macs. Original ipad, ipad 2 Apple iphone 1 and a iPhone 4 which I still have. The use of rare exotic metals in the making of these devices, the sheer numbers of different models and the rate of disposal of the devices themselves is more than concerning for the environment.

The company built itself on the credit cards of original fan boys like me that carried the ball through the torture of the John Scully years and to the launch of the iPhone. But no more! No more increments of improvement. We are done.Comments in the forums are beginning to voice the ennui. It’s an unsustainable path.

Now the basic functionality of our devices is established in hand held touch devices – we need to create systems that support the local economies and the people that have been leveraged to make them. Additionally we can demand an  address to the environmental footprint the industry makes. We need to “think different” about incremental releases and address design that can make devices that will last for lifetimes and not 2 years... Apple has become the monster it set out to destroy. Planned obsolescence Is a ridiculous waste of the earths resources. The lie features a sham  of empowerment foisted on unsuspecting early adopters. This intentional business practice violates the original ethic Apple was founded on. Remember the two kids putting together computer kits for friends in a garage. Remember the 20 something guys that traveled to india for enlightenment and fasted on an apple farm. That’s all gone unless we “think different”.