Escaping The Smartphone Cycle Of Planned Obsolescence

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If you haven’t heard of it before, don’t worry. You’re not the only one. But planned obsolescence plays a huge role in modern consumerist culture. This means creating products that are designed to expire or become irrelevant within a certain amount of time.

It’s a pretty lofty charge to lobby against anyone, but we can’t deny that it would fit very nicely with the world of the smartphone. Yearly updates and constant pressure to stay in touch with them can mean taking a big bite out of your wallet and for what? How much has how you used your phone changed in the past five years? Are those changes really worth the upgrade?

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Start as you mean to go on

Right now, avoiding the planned obsolescence of a smartphone (if it can be called planned) might seem like a difficult task. You can’t expect all developers to keep all devices updated with the latest firmware. Yet, there are already developers and manufacturers who do that.

The Nexus line of Phones is some of the most reliable, heavily updated and extensively customizable phones on the market. They work with different operating systems and are always the first to get system updates from Google. Otherwise, rooting is also an option, but that brings about a much higher demand for user sophistication as well as problems staying within warranties.

If it’s broke, don’t fix it

It is the motto of everyone who wants planned obsolescence to continue being a thing. They want to buy a new product when your current one stops working. They have several ways of making

sure that happens, too. It’s not true of all providers, but many will offer warranties that might seem a bit limited in the scope of time.

They’ll protect against interruptive bugs and malfunctions in the earliest parts of a phone’s life cycle, but not after that. That’s because they want you to move onto the next device.

Instead, you should learn more about things like how circuit board repairs can save your cell phone and how some performance enhancing apps can get your phone performing almost like it’s entirely new. Phones are not impossible to save once they start having trouble.

Thank heavens we have skilled engineers and software creators to make that more than abundantly clear.

Don’t let wheelers and dealers get to you

Never accept a deal in the same conversation where it’s offered to you. Let’s not talk down the work of a good mobile company salesperson. They know how to make a deal sound like the most appealing thing on offer.

However, more and more users are starting to leave phone contracts behind entirely. It might be smarter for you in the long-run, too. Yes, contracts can make economic sense, but they also get you repeatedly in the crosshairs of a company, under a barrage of new offers when they think they could continue your lifespan as a customer.

It’s important to be vigilant when you’re being told that it’s time to upgrade. Stand your ground.

We’re not going to deny that, depending on how you use your phone, sometimes an upgrade is definitely necessary. But you need to be informed as to whether that’s actually the case or not. Don’t take a deal that’s worse off for you just because it seems easier.

Got anything to add to this post? Tell us via comments.

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