Your equipment breaks down just after the Warranty runs out, if it's not
> happened to you; it might soon. In conversation with an 'Electronics repair
> department' man in a Major Department Store recently he said; " it's amazing
> just how often this happens".
>
> A Japanese technician told me a few years ago that their manufacturers were
> already doing research on how to make components fail after a set time. Some
> years ago the government here stopped light bulbs having the filament
> 'indented' to make them 'fail' early. So this activity already has a long
> (and obviously secretive) history, it's called ' Planned Obsolescence '.
I would say this is a slightly grey area. As an example, generally speaking you can expect that any computer produced today will not be in service in (let's say) 15 years time, tops. This will be so simply because people will in 15 years time want something faster, lighter, with more capacity, and lower energy consumption.
Yes, yes I know there'll be some odd bods to whom this does not apply, and it applies much less so for cars and bikes. I'm not talking about them.
For those computers, therefore, there is no benefit to the manufacturer to make them that reliable that the unit's mtbf is 20 years. It costs him and probably uses up more of society's resources. Better then to make the mtfb be ten years, give a five year warranty, and accept some level of claims. (adjust these figures for best commercial sense).
So there's bound to be use of cheaper components in a "planned" way.