The most popular product of all time

Asymco ^ | July 29, 2016 | Horace Dediu

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

IIRC, The term “planned obsolescence” was in regard to the auto industry, which was constantly adding new features to their new models to get people to “upgrade” more often. Apple, and all smartphone companies, seem to follow this pattern.

In the automobile sense, “planned obsolescence” was the charge that the makers deliberately designed cars to be superseded by car features that they could just as easily incorporate now rather than later.

And I think it has to be said that cars tended to corrode in predictable places - and that, in general, the foreign manufacturers attained big market shares by making cars of higher quality than those of the Big Three. I.e., the Big Three needed outside competition to tell them that had to make their products better.

But IMHO it is difficult to make the case that Apple or Samsung have not been innovating rapidly, or that they think they can benefit by intentionally making an inferior product today in order to be able to make a new, improved model tomorrow. Moore’s Law pretty much puts paid to that concept. That is not to say that any electronic product in not inevitably “obsolescent” the moment it is put into production - in the sense that there will always be features which are more or less “bleeding edge” at the time the manufacturer “goes to press” with a production design, and which they could incorporate into the existing model at the price of delaying the schedule and/or shipping a buggy “beta” version.

[Gaffer]

Actually, the knife with which you slice the bacon. :0)

[mad_as_he$$]

and a Honda is not consumable?

[Swordmaker]

I am a big car-guy from way back, but I have to ask the question: Where does the Ford F-150 pickup truck come on this list. I can’t find the number to back up my suspicion that the Ford,( I’m a Mopar Guy.) would place high on the list

The number I found in a quick search is for the Ford F series which counts all F-150, F-250, and those rarer F-350s. Since 1948, there have been 28 million F series trucks built.

[Swordmaker]

and a Honda is not consumable?

In the long run, anything except real estate is a consumable.

[kosciusko51]

Please check out the link at post #58.

[kosciusko51]

In the long run, we are all dead ...

;-)

[SamAdams76]

Planned obsolescence. Depends on the complexity of the widget.

It is likely that the below bottle opener will be just as state of the art 100 years from now as it was 100 years ago. Not much room for improvement with regard to a bottle opener. It has a basic task and the design below is unlikely to be improved upon.

The smartphone is a rapidly evolving device. I happen to have some of my old phones lying around. State of the art at the time but positively prehistoric by today's standards. I do think that the rate of progress is starting to slow with regard to the smartphone. My new iPhone 6S Plus is not radically different than the iPhone 5S I upgraded from. Larger screen size and a few other features, but basically the same phone.

I'm sure that iPhone 7S Plus will be well worth the upgrade two years from now.