Comments on: Are consumer products crossing the line to too cheap? http://www.embeddedinsights.com/channels/2011/01/19/are-consumer-products-crossing-the-line-to-too-cheap/ Shedding Light on the Hidden World of Embedded Systems Mon, 28 Jul 2014 16:18:37 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: J.S. @ TI http://www.embeddedinsights.com/channels/2011/01/19/are-consumer-products-crossing-the-line-to-too-cheap/#comment-5113 J.S. @ TI Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:09:31 +0000 http://www.embeddedinsights.com/channels/?p=424#comment-5113 yes,I met this situation sometimes. One time, my phone showed its question by shining snow flowers, and I pressed the button on/off, but the button did not work. Finally, I took the battery off directly. I dont know what is wrong with the phone up to now. Another time, my phone was ringing and ringing---someone called me! I could'nt listen the call . Although I pressed the button hardly, the button did'nt work any way. I t exausted me. My phone is a Copy version of Nokia,and "NOKIA" is printed into "NCKIA". The most benifit of the phone is cheap, I think the quality line has been crossed too. It is a pity. yes,I met this situation sometimes. One time, my phone showed its question by shining snow flowers, and I pressed the button on/off, but the button did not work. Finally, I took the battery off directly. I dont know what is wrong with the phone up to now.

Another time, my phone was ringing and ringing—someone called me! I could’nt listen the call . Although I pressed the button hardly, the button did’nt work any way. I t exausted me.

My phone is a Copy version of Nokia,and “NOKIA” is printed into “NCKIA”. The most benifit of the phone is cheap, I think the quality line has been crossed too. It is a pity.

]]> By: Doug Abbott http://www.embeddedinsights.com/channels/2011/01/19/are-consumer-products-crossing-the-line-to-too-cheap/#comment-5032 Doug Abbott Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:26:36 +0000 http://www.embeddedinsights.com/channels/?p=424#comment-5032 Well, let's start by recognizing that consumer products are, more or less by definition, "consumable". The basic idea is to sell something that will more or less work for some reasonable amount of time and then either fail or become obsolete so you're forced to by a new one. That's what keeps "the economy" going. So reducing the quality is simply a way of getting the product to fail sooner. I recently replaced an HP OfficeJet G85 printer that I had for about eight years. I have no illusions that the replacement will last that long. The American auto industry had a name for this phenomenon back in the '50s. They called it "planned obsolescence". It worked well until the Japanese came along and built cars with real quality. But now it seems that the whole world has caught onto the idea of churning crap as fast as possible to grow "the economy". Oh, and God forbid we should make anything that might be repairable. That would be bad for "the economy". Well, let’s start by recognizing that consumer products are, more or less by definition, “consumable”. The basic idea is to sell something that will more or less work for some reasonable amount of time and then either fail or become obsolete so you’re forced to by a new one. That’s what keeps “the economy” going. So reducing the quality is simply a way of getting the product to fail sooner. I recently replaced an HP OfficeJet G85 printer that I had for about eight years. I have no illusions that the replacement will last that long.

The American auto industry had a name for this phenomenon back in the ’50s. They called it “planned obsolescence”. It worked well until the Japanese came along and built cars with real quality. But now it seems that the whole world has caught onto the idea of churning crap as fast as possible to grow “the economy”. Oh, and God forbid we should make anything that might be repairable. That would be bad for “the economy”.

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