There are many examples of products out on the market that are considered old an
d out dated. Planned obsooescence is the design of a product that will soon become obsolete because the manufacturer knows they will be developing a new and improved product after this one. Computers are an excellent example of this. Last September I bought a brand new Gateway Windows Vista computer. When I took it home it was running slower than my old computer so I brought it back to the store and they said that the updates were not up to date. So they updated everything for me and it worked once I brought it home for the second time. This is crazy to me because when I buy a new computer I expect it to be up to date on everything. But unfortunatly this is not the case with technology. The day or the day after you buy something, it is already out of date because there is either a new update for it, or another product on the market. Some would see this as unethical because computer manufactures know this, and yet they never give people a chance to stay up to date because they always come out with something better and more expensive.
d out dated. Planned obsooescence is the design of a product that will soon become obsolete because the manufacturer knows they will be developing a new and improved product after this one. Computers are an excellent example of this. Last September I bought a brand new Gateway Windows Vista computer. When I took it home it was running slower than my old computer so I brought it back to the store and they said that the updates were not up to date. So they updated everything for me and it worked once I brought it home for the second time. This is crazy to me because when I buy a new computer I expect it to be up to date on everything. But unfortunatly this is not the case with technology. The day or the day after you buy something, it is already out of date because there is either a new update for it, or another product on the market. Some would see this as unethical because computer manufactures know this, and yet they never give people a chance to stay up to date because they always come out with something better and more expensive.
Another example would be Apple's Ipod. A few years ago the Ipod classic and nano were very popular. Now they created the Itouch which is better, has more features, and is much more expensive. Within a year, this one will probably be outdated and a newer, smaller, more expensive one will come out.
Companies do this to make more money, and because technology is something that is growing so fast that new things are always available. However, when they are in the process of making one product, and knowing another version or model is on the way right after this one is unethical because this shows they are not trying to combine all features into one product. They want to try to put only a few features in version 1, add one or two more in version 2, and so on. There is no benefit to the customer when they have to purchase versions 1, 2, and 3 when the manufacture could have produced one version to begin with. When computers first came out some would consider this acceptable because they didn't know how far technology could go. Now, there is so much stuff out there that the manufactures know about, they just don't want to take the time to combine everything for the benefit of the consumer.
On the other side of things, some people might not mind buying new versions of software, computers, Ipods, or even cell phones every year or so because it makes them feel like they are getting something new and improved every time they shop.
Worlds first computer
Computer on the market now
Next generation computers on the market soon. If you don't have a touch screen now, yours will be outdated soon!
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