Why Do Gadgets Break?

TurboTurnip writes "A post on the Crave blog at CNET asks: Why are modern consumer electronics so easily broken? It argues that the 21st Century is 'The Age of the Flimsy' where 'your gadgets will simply break within the year.' Post author Chris Stevens talks about how computers are fast enough for the average user, and the only way to make consumers upgrade is 'increasingly poor build quality ... Engineers have built obsolescence into mass-produced technology since the 1920s. There are two kinds of planned deterioration in a product: one is technical, the other is stylistic.' The writer compares the build quality of a 20 year-old IBM XT to the modern Motorola Razr phone and concludes that modern gadgets are 'delicate, beautiful supermodels that can't go the distance.'"

Comments

Three words...

[Xochil]

"Made in China"

'nuff said.

Re:Cost savings?

[emilyridesabmx]

You are 100% correct, you stole the words right out of my mouth. At this point in time consumer electronics are dirt cheap, especially if you factor in the amount of design and engineering work it takes to bring something to market. You can buy a decent computer for $400 USD now, and if I remember correctly my first computer (a lighting quick 286 with DUAL floppies) cost somewhere around $2000 Used. That article is shoddy reporting, anyone of us engineers could have brought this major point home.