In 2013, I raised a concern about the troubling trend of consumer electronics becoming unrepairable. Ultrabooks and tablets were sleek and lightweight, but with components like RAM and SSDs soldered to motherboards, and batteries glued in place, repairs were nearly impossible. Fast forward to today, and the situation has escalated from troubling to infuriating. Devices from laptops to smartphones are intentionally designed to fail, with repairs being so expensive that they might as well not exist. Upgrades are out of the question, and when something breaks, replacing the entire device is often the only option. This deliberate strategy by manufacturers is a betrayal to consumers, disguised as progress.
Soldered components, like those found in Apple’s M-series MacBooks, lock users into their ecosystem and prevent upgrades or repairs. Batteries are intentionally designed to fail, forcing consumers to replace the entire device when the battery dies. The fragility of modern devices, driven by the obsession with thinness and aesthetics, makes repairs costly and impractical. Proprietary software and IoT devices contribute to a mountain of e-waste when manufacturers end support or shut down platforms, rendering perfectly functional hardware useless.
The financial cost of planned obsolescence is just the tip of the iceberg. The true burden falls on consumers and the environment, with e-waste poisoning the planet and endangering workers in developing nations. However, there is hope in repair culture. Countries like Cuba, India, Japan, and the European Union have embraced repairability, offering sustainable alternatives to the disposable future pushed by manufacturers. By promoting repair over replacement, these regions prove that a more sustainable approach to consumer electronics is not only possible but practical.