Planned Obsolecense as a Consumer

vibrokatana

vibrokatana

New Member
This is something that I thought about several months ago but never really bothered to do any research. Basically I was thinking about how as a business/consumer people generally plan when they are going to upgrade/replace/etc their machines/computers/etc.

Lets assume the generic consumer:
- Buy computer
- Computer goes on for a few years and functions fine
- Computer catches a virus or dies and consumer buys new machine to replace broken one

This seems fine, but it always defaults to downtime and possible loss of data. Of course accidents happen, but isn't this skating the line a bit?

Now lets assume planned obsolescence:
- Consumer buys a computer and plans to use it for 3 years.
- Computer functions fine for several years
- Computer reaches planned age and the consumer either upgrades or decides to continue using it.

This seems to reduce risk, but the consumer still is not protecting their data. But this isn't really the purpose of this. If the consumer planned to use the machine for 3 years then they have a target to begin saving. This could also function as a brake on impulse buying.

Now lets look at it from a management sense. You basically have 100s of machines that are going to be needed to upgraded consistently. You could plan say a mandatory system health inspection say every year or so. During this period the machines could be upgraded with low cost components (ram is the most popular atm) or reformatted as necessary. It would be fairly easy to budget which machines will be expiring instead of trying to guess how many you will need to order.

Discuss, or everyone will have to taste tek's cooking.
 
It is interesting. But there are some iffy spots on the consumer related idea and on the management one.

I really doubt people would keep up with a plan like this one just for a computer. It is too involved. I can see people doing this with a car (where it is more costly to operate it in general and where it takes account of how long you've used it (odometer) and warranties and payments and such) and with portions of one's house. It just seems too complex for something that can be purchased for around $500 and that will last quite a while if it is taken care of and so long as the programs and functions it performs are compatible.

On the management side of the question I also see problems.

Sure, it is important for businesses to be able to compete in the market place and it is true that competing often means having the computing resources to be able to do so. But sometimes this is not the case. In the dealership where I work, all of the computers were replaced in late 2006. The new computers are Dell Optiplex 260's (or 280's.. I can't remember). The previous computer system the dealership utilized was 25 years old. No joke. The computers were 12" screens on a small stand about 1" tall and only displayed green text in predetermined places (dunno what that's called). The printers were all line printers (the ones that printed paper with feeder holes down either side of the pages, which were separated by perforations). I think its important for businesses to stay on top of their game, but for every business the way they stay on top will be different. At the dealership the motto was "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The only reason we got new computers was because we got all new management, lol.
 
Me, due to my financial status as a student who isn't seeing any money coming in from my job (Work/study college and all), my planned upgrade cycle consists mostly of prayers along the lines of 'please let this 8 year old HD last until I graduate and have a job' kind of thing.

Here on campus we have all the computers on a three year rotation. So all of our computers are either brand new, one year, or two years old, and we swap the three year ones out whether they really need it or not every summer. Its a good solid system, and makes things easier when dealing with warranties and the like. We don't have any serious backup issues due to official policy saying essentially "if you want it saved put it on the provided server" (not that most people listen...). We have a different system for servers, but I'm not exactly sure what that system is.
 
Nah we've got them all safely stored in nice tall server racks, undergoing extreme duress whenever the dedicated A\C kicks off and the backup doesn't want to kick on (seems to happen at least once or twice a year...).
 
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