The origin of the phrase planned obsolescence goes back at least as far as 1932 with Bernard London's pamphlet Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence. The frequent design changes also made it necessary to use a body-on-frame structure rather than the lighter, but less easy to modify, unibody design used by most European automakers. GM surpassed Ford's sales in 1931 and became the dominant company in the industry thereafter. Henry Ford did not like the constant stream of model-year changes because he clung to an engineer's notions of simplicity, economies of scale, and design integrity. The smaller players could not maintain the pace and expense of yearly re-styling. This strategy had far-reaching effects on the automobile industry, product design field and eventually the whole American economy. Sloan often used the term dynamic obsolescence, but critics coined the name of his strategy planned obsolescence. Although his concept was borrowed from the bicycle industry, its origin was often misattributed to Sloan. suggested annual model-year design changes to convince car owners to buy new replacements each year, with refreshed appearances headed by Harley Earl and the Art and Color Section. To maintain unit sales, General Motors executive Alfred P. In 1924, the American automobile market began reaching saturation point. Įnding the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence, by Bernard London, 1932 For example, when Japanese vehicles with longer lifespans entered the American market in the 1960s and 1970s, American carmakers were forced to respond by building more durable products.
When a market becomes more competitive, product lifespans tend to increase. In these cases of planned obsolescence, there is an information asymmetry between the producer, who knows how long the product was designed to last, and the customer, who does not. Before introducing a planned obsolescence, the producer has to know that the customer is at least somewhat likely to buy a replacement from them (see brand loyalty). Planned obsolescence tends to work best when a producer has at least an oligopoly. It is the deliberate shortening of a lifespan of a product to force people to purchase functional replacements. The rationale behind this strategy is to generate long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases (referred to as "shortening the replacement cycle"). In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain pre-determined period of time upon which it decrementally functions or suddenly ceases to function, or might be perceived as unfashionable.
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