I was sat having lunch with my wife today as we were visiting a tailor in the city. But we were discussing how much the world had changed and for the worse.
The fact you can buy a cheap laptop and it lasts somewhere between 1/3rd and a 5th of the lifespan of its predecessor’s is an example of built to fail. A video documentary covered a similar thing with printers that dump ink every time they reset. They simply break themselves although a thorough clean may fix it you won’t find someone cheap enough to tell you how.Why? Because built to fail makes more money even though its driven by consumer demand.
For example the media drive for the latest iPhone is nothing short of excessive hype. Fact is the new iPhone isn’t that much of a leap over the last one or even the one before it. I know myself using tabs and smartphones they are often too bulky to be practical. Most of the time I can be found with a £30 phone I bought nearly 10 years ago because its reliable, I can drop it and it doesn’t break but also its battery life is 4 – 5 days not every 12 hours. Why is this magical device so good? Because its a real phone that is used for phoning!
I do have a tab, I do have a laptop and I do have a desktop PC but I also use all three of them. The tab i would love to upgrade to something new but I won’t because I don’t need to. The new model may have a touch screen pen but I have to ask “what difference will that make to me?” answer is nothing. The laptop I use for data gathering and will continue to do so until it fails. But this is an item that is over a year old and is now starting to show signs of “built to fail”. Hard drive failed recently losing some important data and its overheating more regularly. Its a DELL and I know the HP has the same problem of the built in mouse freaking out and doing its own thing. Its why I sit here typing on my laptop from a wireless keyboard and mouse! Doesn’t make it so practical for travelling.
Desktop is my hub of large screen Excel sheets where I can work on multiple things at the same time. After struggling on a 15” laptop while in Oman returning to the Philippines and buying a large LED monitor it was like sitting in the cinema in comparison. Yet these are all practical things I will run until they do fail. Question is can you buy a better laptop than the one I purchased? Are others playing the run to fail game? Because I know my original Toshiba laptop lasted over 6 years, the following 2 Toshiba laptops afterwards started falling apart after 12 months. This I believe is not only a cost reduction exercise on parts but also the factory moved from the Philippines to China. Quality drastically dropped and even the paint becomes worn extremely quick. That’s how I ended up with the DELL as I would normally spend more for better quality but found Toshiba had just become spending more and not the same standard and quality it once was. I know some will say opt for a Mac but the issue is the spread sheets I use can often crash a system built for them so I can see them failing miserably on a Mac just as well.
Your probably wondering where I am going with this but its simply the fact nobody makes anyone buy anything even though they try. If anything I have become more weary on upgrading because it seems it won’t last as long as the unit its replacing. I do budget a laptop every year because I can’t afford to be without one for work, but I can live without my tab. I also don’t see the point in labels or “branding” if there is no separation in quality. You might as well have Wal-Mart written on a laptop if there is nothing that stands out from the crowd in reliability and quality.
But I wonder how can companies and media be telling everyone to be more environmental and green when the reality is the same companies are moving from quality to quantity? Worse than that they are actually building faults into products on purpose which has even more of a negative impact on the planet.
One thing is for sure I have become a lot more practical on my buying as quality nose dived. Silverware and plates I look to auctions to buy extremely high quality at a knock down price often less than new stuff arriving in from China. Clothing I have custom made or look for items that are already very high quality. Because cheap items don’t last and even if paying 5 x more for good quality if choosing the right stuff you get what you pay for something that may even outlast myself. Something that doesn’t go on the scrap pile but becomes a family air loom. A de-cluttered lifestyle where choosing what to buy is made on need rather than want. Because lets face it if more people bought less junk they could actually afford the better stuff themselves. Even down to a pen when you look at how long a Parker pen will last compared to a Biro. How many Biro’s would you need to go through to reach the same cost as a Parker? I would say the Parker pen and Biro’s may end up costing around the same. But when you buy a refill for your Parker its actually going to work out cheaper than all those Biro’s.
In facilities management I have already seen the affect of metal parts being replaced by plastic. The problem with plastic is that you may find that blades on a motor will become brittle over time from heat then break. When they break they eventually cause further damage to motor. Inside the motor several components have also been replaced and that leads to more things to faulty quicker. Working for the Ministry of Defence I seen this where salvaging motors that were over 50 years old already by mixing parts. They outlasted new Chinese motors. A Chinese motor lasted a maximum of 1-2 years, German 5 years and the original British ones that were old as the hills had lasted 50 years and most were still going. They were starting to become scarce as parts are no longer available but a burnt out coil from one is replaced from another with a broken bearing. Question is when will everyone realise that built to fail designs or “cheap” doesn’t always make a productive real world solution?