Best products with planned obsolescence. Here is my top 6. (in no order)
 

Light bulbs
Car tires
Disposable cigarette lighters
Microsoft products/computers
Gas
Life/medical

For those that do not what it means:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned...d_obsolescence

Please add for I am thinking aloud.

Fuck the link doesn't work..better this way anyway:pimp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

(You 'double-pasted'..? ;)

And here's my contribution, just one: PORN SITE MEMBERSHIPS!! :)

garbage bags

Wikipedia.....

Car tires? How can a wear item have planned obsolescence? Friction equals traction. A tire that will never wear out would handle like crap. A tire that has excellent traction will have a very short life-span.

A matter of physics not corporate planning.

Consumables?

Might as well add Ipods to that list.

They know dam well the only reason they don't make them with a user-replaceable battery is because most people are just going to toss it in the trash once it quits working and buy a new one, rather than sending it away to Apple for them to put a new battery in it.

I know you can put one in yourself with a little know-how, but 99% of people are not going to do this, so it keeps the new Ipod sales flowing.

Consumables is not the same as planned obsolescence, better example would be perhaps printers, they work great for a few years, then you can't purchase cartridges anymore making the printer useless...

I realize that. But the light bulbs, disposable lighters, tires and gas kinda threw me.

dvd's piles of porn....:pimp

What a stupid and useless academic concept. Everything with the possible exception of art, written work, and architecture will become obsolete at some point or another (I`m sure there are some others that I am missing here). We make advances and better products all the time. It is human nature. If it were not we would all be driving a Model T to work or no car at all.

Also, a light bulb does not become obsolete but rather burns out. The same goes for a disposable lighter. They both have a finite life line that once exceeded means that they will not work. There is no expectation that they will last beyond that point. Besides, the new light bulbs last much longer than the old ones did so in my mind that kind of disproves your point.

Newspapers & magazines. AM radio.

Motorola brand cellphones, in the fashion sense. Coming up with creative designs and appealing to people who change their phones not as a matter of functionality, but because they want to be the latest on the block with the cool new SLVR or whatever. Who would really want a RAZR now? That's so 2004.

yea, but that's not the point, the point is that companies make certain design/business choices to force obsolescence faster... Like for example lets look at a cd player that I bought 10 years ago, it still works fine, and will work fine for the next 10 years... on the other hand, lets look at the ipod, there is no way an ipod will last 20 years, the software will stop being supported or the battery will die out long before then...

Why did it throw you?

Disposable cigarette lighters cost 99 cents. I smoke and I buy them, NEVER have I seen the gas reach the bottom before the flint dies or the mechanics break. Try bringing it back for a refund. (or sue for 99 cents)?

They follow BIC (Pens) same shit. Big boys.

Light bulbs that can last 3 to 4 years are available but GE has lawsuits holding strong caught in long litigation, guess who has more money?

Tires? Please do some research.

And gas/oil. Today.

Minnesota: $2.80 per gallon.
New York: $3.25 per gallon.

Wake up. It hurts me too.

Because they aren't going obsolete, they are being consumed.

Pretty much every lighter I have ever owned has died before the flint wears out, unless I lose it.

I don't use bic pens, I use Pilot G2's. Way better. But again, they aren't going obsolete, the ink inside is being consumed.

There's a difference between something like, let's say a video card that becomes obsolete in a year, and a set of tires who's tread wears down in a year or two.

Whores, in my experience, also wear out very quickly.

You're not very smart are you?

A pen that writes up side down on a space shuttle mission: $750
A pencil: 5 cents.

Your reply: priceless