planned obsolescence

English

planned obsolescence (uncountable)

A policy of deliberately planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete or nonfunctional after a certain period.
- 1932, Bernard London, “Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence”, in The New Prosperity, published 1933, →OCLC:
  An equally important advantage of a system of planned obsolescence would be its function in providing a new reservoir from which to draw income for the operation of the Government.
- 2010, Tim Cooper, Longer Lasting Products, Gower Publishing, →ISBN, page 77:
  To the general public planned obsolescence first came to notoriety through the highly popular writings of Vance Packard (1963), who slammed Stevens in his bestselling book The Waste Makers.

policy