Recent washing machines, fridges, kettles, even light bulbs are designed to fail and force you, the consumer, to purchase another one.
The other aspect of this is the consumerist market, where products are brought out on a regular timeframe and advertising and marketing entices you to purchase the new design. Quite often points of failure are built into the old model as with the original non-replaceable battery in the iPod touch. The market forced Apple to change that policy, but the intent was clear. Also look at something like ink jet printers, where the life span of the printer is hard wired into the circuit board. Or look at the design of smartphones, where software is not updated on older hardware to force consumers to purchase new devices (unless you root your phone yourself, which can introduce other issues). Look it up, planned obsolescence. It is actually taught in Engineering, Engineers are taught how to create products with a fixed shelf life determined by the businesses which they work for. Something else to look up is the history of Nylon. Originally, Nylon stockings never ran and could be used to tow cars. Engineers were told to go back to the drawing board and re-engineer Nylon so that it failed after an average amount of time. On 11 April 2011 20:05, Eric Roberts <ow...@threeravensconsulting.com> wrote: > > I have a soy milk maker that I have had for 15 years and it still works fine > (though I think that is made in Japan). The Panasonic microwave is 16 years > old (not sure where it is made, but I would assume Japan). My blender and > mixer (I think they are both Oster, which is made in Sweden if I remember > correctly) are over 10 year old. The only newer stuff I have is Cuisinart > Kuerig Coffee Maker and my toaster oven (G ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:336151 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
