What is Obsolescence?
Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when a person, object, or service is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order. There are many types of obsolescence such as style obsolescence, which involves the product being out of fashion or style. There is also something called Postponement obsolescence where technological improvements are not introduced to a product, even though they could be.
Planned obsolescence is where the producer and manufacturer of a product decide to make one of its products obsolete within a fixed time frame. This benefits the manufacturer because then the person cannot purchase a item that will last for a long time. The consumer would therefore have to purchase another item that is new from the manufacturer or from the other competition. This is beneficial to increase sales and therefore increase profit and income for whoever owns the shares of the company.
Obsolescence management tries to minimize the effects of obsolescence. This can include last-time purchases, life- time buys and obsolescence monitoring. Obsolescence may occur when a product becomes superior other another, or when changes in other products make the other useless, or when repairing is more expensive, or when poor components cause short life or when there are no more supplies.
Technical obsolescence is when a product is no longer technically superior to other, similar products. Functional obsolescence, on the other hand, occurs when a product no longer functions the way it did when it was first purchased.
Obsolescence of an Item in the Home
My old ME Dos based computer was thrown out when it was replaced by a Windows Vista based system. It had 600 MHz, 256Mbs of RAM and a 56 Mb video card. It was extremely old, and even though it was new in the 2000s, it is useless today. It is not compatible with today's software and hardware. It cannot run advanced programs that are here today. It runs on a DOS based system unlike the NT system run by Vista and XP. All its places where plugs go in are old and cannot be used for advanced technology. It does not support new devices and cannot be used for gaming. It has become technically obsolete. All the computer systems of today are superior. It has also suffered to style obsolescence. The product has become useless due to major changes in other products.
The replaced device was attempted to be sold, but it was too old and was not bought. We did the only thing we could do. We put it out on one of those days when the council would pick up junk. It went on out pile and it landed in the landfill. The council may have recycled it however.
