Velvel Grach and Explains What Planned Obsolescence Means for Consumers

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Velvel Grach What Planned Obsolescence Means Velvel Grach What Planned Obsolescence Means

Consumer tech reviewer Velvel Grach covers a range of topics in his online articles, giving consumers an insightful look at the top gadgets on their wish lists. Picking up on cues in the media, he helps readers understand what the recent buzz around planned obsolescence means for them and what they can expect in the future. 

 

Velvel Grach

Velvel Grach is a news editor, tech reviewer, and professional video gamer who keeps up with newsworthy topics and consumer reviews to share with his online audience. Employing a bachelor’s degree in computer science, he sheds light on tech topics such as artificial intelligence, gaming news, social media culture, technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the future. He’s noticed stories of planned obsolescence appearing in the media recently and helps readers understand what it means and how it impacts them. 

 

“If we’re not vigilant and careful to hold major tech producers accountable for the integrity of their products,” says Velvel Grach, “we’re essentially paying for unnecessary upgrades and wasting thousands of dollars each year.”

 

What is Planned Obsolescence?

As we’ve seen recently, some manufacturers are deliberately designing their products to go bad after a certain period of time in order to coax consumers into upgrading to the latest model. In addition, these companies may also limit consumer’s ability to fix problems on their own by using things like incompatible screws and copyrighted software to gatekeep. 

 

This is often the reason behind seasonal product releases and yearly upgrades of top consumer products. Many companies have recently come under fire in the media for such practices, including a French lawsuit against tech mogul Apple for purposefully slowing down the older version of their phones.

 

“The lawsuit states that Apple sets its own shelf life for their products and begins to alter the performance of older models as they produce newer and ‘better’ versions,” says Velvel Grach

 

Apple is only the latest and most standout example of planned obsolescence to arrive in the media, most notably because of its rapid rebranding of slightly-altered products each year. There are only small upgrades in new iPhone models as they release throughout the year, but they at least offer a solution to the buggy and suddenly-failing older models. People are beginning to suspect that the same questionable manufacturing may be applied to all their products, including iPads, iPods, Macbooks, software and more. 

 

The tech industry is booming, and it’s no wonder it’s generating so much money if other major tech corporations follow similar practices. But Velvel Grach has hope that the future will usher in better, more sustainable products now that the word is out. 

 

“Now that the media has got ahold of planned obsolescence and the majority of consumers have probably at least heard of it, I hope companies will be more mindful of how they create their products,” says Velvel Grach. “Otherwise, I feel even industry leaders like Apple will phase out a lot faster than anticipated.” 

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