Not Bad Apple

Evil Apple.

iPhone 7

The big takeaway: no more headphone/earbud jack, now earpods.

I'm not ragging on Apple. Samsung is not much better with its exploding Note 7's. I'm talking about obsolescence. (Watch if you have some time)

Planned obsolescence. It's what Apple does. Even if McIntosh didn't start the trend.

Planned Obsolescence
noun
the policy of deliberately limiting the life of  a product in order to encourage the purchaser to replace it.
 
General Motors started the trend. Our government saved these evil masterminds in 2009. Anyway... that's for another blog. So GM decided in 1924 to start making new models every year. The whole marketing scheme fueled from jealousy.

via GIPHY

The coinage of the phrase goes to Barnard London in 1932. He used the phrase to describe a way for America to get out of the Great Depression. London thought that the government should require the obsoletion of products after an artificially defined period of time. This would then hopefully increase consumer spending, leading to an increase in aggregate demand and eventually an increase in GDP.

In Vance Packard's 1960 criticism of capitalism, "The Waste Makers." He blames businesses for making us poor, unhappy (always wanting newer, more functional products), and wasteful. Packard helpfully divides planned obsolescence into two categories, obsolescence of desirability and the obsolescence of function.

Apple likes to promote the obsolescence of function in their products to make people buy their newest thing. They like to get people to install iOS updates on their older iPhones. This makes your phone really laggy and your battery doesn't last as long. New phone. Then there's this thing. They make their products with tamper resistant screws so you can't easily repair your own machine. If it breaks it breaks And if you happen to spill liquid on your keyboard. You're screwed. Its not covered by the warranty plan. New machine. They switched from microUSB to the proprietary lightning charger. UNIVERSAL serial bus, no longer universal. Just to get you to buy more of their stuff.

There is some aspect of the promotion of the obsolescence of desirability. They roll out with new iPhones every year. These unveiling events have a lot of hype. After the event people go to wait in line at the nearest Apple store. New machine. People get jealous. New machines.

The last straw. On the new iPhone 7, although its faster and water resistant and has a little better camera and battery life, doesn't have a headphone jack. You can just buy our earpods. They get rid of something that's useful to get you to buy more of their own products. Its not a conspiracy its a fact! (What all conspiracy theorists say.)

Rant, much?

The above are why I don't use iPhones and never will use iPhones. I prefer the "people-sourced" android phones. They won't switch the most common connection on me. There aren't hyped unveiling events. So no one get jealous over which model you have. They're much easier to repair.