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Products Born To Fail

Deliberately making sure an item looses it's relevance or goes out of date and has to be replaced over a certain time period even as little as a couple of years. The product becomes obsolete on purpose (or non-functional) as in some software.

This system of manufacturing actively stimulates a trend demand, therefore the consumer will keep up-grading.
Living up to today's lifestyle demands can prove costly as you desire the latest upgrades of your favorite items. This can make a huge whole in your wallet and with such a strong pull on the consumer to get the latest model many of you are turning to credit cards to purchase these super trendy goods, resulting in a big whole in your bank balance!

It's amazing to discover that an estimated 75% of unused computers that are now useless and invalid are hanging around as electronic waste.

An amazing 7% of you throw your cell phones in the trash when you buy an upgrade. There are many companies that offer to recycle these.

In some extreme cases electronic waste of some form is being sent illegally to various Far Eastern countries like China, India, and Malaysia, and Also Kenya and some African countries.

Our health and environmental problems are increasing due to the inefficient disposal of these products, causing air pollution, contaminated water and hazardous excess surface water run off. This water flow happens when the soil is so full to capacity it produces over spill that can cause health issues.

Its a fact that there are workers, some of them children, working in heavily polluted very basic conditions recycling obsolete electronic goods by stripping down their components.
Buy long lasting products for a few dollars more!




Leave the car at home and get on your bike, or take the bus for those short trips. Not only will you save the environment but it will help towards your finances.
Enjoy the fruits of your garden and save on cash and gas!
There are loads of products available, you can even start with low level energy light bulbs, all small changes will make a difference.
Paper, clothing, glass, plastic, give reusable items a facelift or get them fixed.
It has been stated that in 1924 the manufactures of the incandescent light bulbs conspired to keep the life span of there product below the real capability to ensure they retained continuous demand.
Very cleverly inject cartridges come with a built in device that prevent the continuation of printing when only one color compartment gets to a certain low level, even though there is ample ink to continue.


The solution is to use less pricy cartridges or even re-fillable ones, this will not only save you money but will also eliminate the use of unnecessary materials. There are many settings on your printer where you can opt to use less ink, for example switch to greyscale whenever you can, and set on normal print not advanced.
To increase sales of the updated versions of this technology most systems have now been designed to prevent compatibility with the original games system.


The easiest way to combat this and save your dollars is to swap games, rent or buy second hand. There are many postal service available for this, so you can also save on land travel.
It's amazing to think there is even planned obsolescence in reference books. As publishers tend to update books and bring out new editions this can often alter page numbers making it difficult to follow and keep up in class.


The solution is to buy used books, these also come at a pinch. There are places that stock them like Craigslist online for example.

There is always the option to rent a book, this is an even cheaper way of learning and a great method of recycling.
We all know how fashion trends come and go each season. Many high street stores design trends on purpose to increase demand, and with clever marketing make consumers desire the must have latest trends.


A great idea is to buy classic clothes that won't date, and Vintage fashion will never go out. Swap clothes with friends, revamp old clothes and for that special occasion borrow.
Where software is concerned many previous titles have been re-developed but do not have the compatibility with older programs. For example Windows constantly upgrades and with each incarnation comes the desire to not only buy the new software but also to upgrade the hardware, forcing customers to keep up with trend technology.


There are loads of open source software available, some on offer for free, and in some cases this can include certain upgrades.

Not everyone wants the latest!
Automobile manufacturers often obsolete certain spares that could be used for repairs. Every year they seem to bring out a new model with just a few minor changes to entice the customer.


Second hand cars are not the most fashionable choice but by servicing on a regular basis it will help to keep it running longer and could help to prevent the manufacturers using new resources.
Electronic companies are the biggest culprits of planned obsolescence. For example MP3 player manufacturers hold off on upgrading models with more memory capability to ensure the consumer buys a new one when the memory is to capacity.

The biggest con is the production of the low battery life (made of lithium-ion) in many of our every day electronic items like camera's, laptops, and MP3's forcing you to buy a new one.

Out on the markets today is a great alternative known as the generic battery, however manufacturers choose not to recommend these for obvious reasons but they have proven to be less problematic.
Google Buzz tried to become a social networking tool but failed ultimately because of privacy issues. They had installed an automatic tracking set in the system which allowed old colleagues and friends to be contacted with out consent.
Another social networking disaster. as you could only connect through iTUNES and IOs
Defeated again as Google only completed 3 month worth of work as users didn't communicate due to lack of Google friends.


Products Born to Fail


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