To: Apple, Samsung and Canon
End inbuilt obsolescence
These market leading companies are a starting point for this campaign to ask companies to stop making equipment that is designed to fail after a certain period. We demand that in-built obsolescence be ended and are asking these companies to voluntarily lead the way.
Why is this important?
Global warming, mountains of garbage, unnecessary waste and expense. These companies, and many more, contribute to all of them in their drive for ever greater profits. How? By designing their tech to fail when there is actually nothing wrong with it.
With Apple and Samsung it's non-replaceable batteries in their phones and tablets. Not only have they stopped making phones with interchangeable batteries they've done everything they can to make it impossible to change them for the average consumer. Add in a feeble two year update cycle and at least one of them being caught out remotely crippling their devices performance and you see a time scale in which they intend you to give them more and more cash every time you're forced to upgrade.
With Canon it's printers. My last one failed after 18 months. Why? Because of a piece of sponge the size of a postage stamp that's used to clean the print heads. Over time this becomes saturated and the printer refuses to work. There is nothing wrong with any other part of the printer and this spine has been buried in the middle of it requiring a long and complicated process to replace. One which is rejected by any repair shop because it will cost more than a new printer. Canon's ceo has been quoted as saying that they expect their printers to have a two year life time with consumers.
The waste of resources caused by these policies cannot be sustained by the planet any longer. Plastics, metals, minerals wasted and dumped in land fill. Even recycling doesn't recover more than a fraction of the resources used to make these devices.
