by morgamic July 13, 2005
A process which involves a manufacture to develope a product (such as a car, video game console, TV) with the intentions of making it obsolete and/or non-functional after a certain period of time in order to sales and profit. It has benefits for a producer (repeat purchases) but disadvantages for the consumer(waste of time and money).
Man, I have to go to the store again; my toaster broke and it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new one. Freakin' planned obsolescence.
by Yza February 2, 2008
A more heavy-handed version of Planned Obsolescence usually employed in the high-tech industry, especially software. Consumers of a product are forced to upgrade through some new technology rendering an old one literally unusable, usually through unnecessary incompatibility issues.
Porting a game from the 360 to the PC, rewritten to require DX10 when DX9 was used originally and clearly runs the game, can only be Enforced Obsolescence.
by Digital Watches May 26, 2010
A business strategy where a company plans the obsolescence of a product to encourage the purchase of a newer version of a product. This can be done in several ways, ranging from bad engineering to breaking updates. Apple most famously uses this strategy to slow down iPhones and iPads of 1-2 generations back to encourage people to buy a new more expensive iPhone.
Person 1: "My iPhone is slow! I can't believe it, I have an iPhone 6 which is only 1 generation behind!!!"
Person 2: "Yeah, Apple slows down the iPhone a lot via updates to try and get you to buy a new one. That's called planned obsolescence."
Person 2: "Yeah, Apple slows down the iPhone a lot via updates to try and get you to buy a new one. That's called planned obsolescence."
by pokemoneuro August 22, 2017
(adj.) Something recently acquired that, due to inferior construction, breaks before you can use it, making it useless, e.g. cheap bin liners, corporate gift pens, etc.
A: Hey, this pen I was given when attending that workshop is really shiny but it doesn’t write.
B: Yeah, that’s because it’s pre-obsolescent.
B: Yeah, that’s because it’s pre-obsolescent.
by W. T. Figo November 18, 2010