Workers make smartphones - they design, assemble, and sell them. Capitalism is the system under which all of the above occurs from start to finish.
Not to mention, for them to work they require a service network of towers and infrastructure, data centers, etc.
It’s not like Johann the Blacksmith can fire up the forge and hammer out an iPhone to feed his family for the winter.
Capitalism doesn’t mean the use of currency and buyer-seller markets. Capitalism means private ownership of the means of production. If apple was owned by the workers of the company instead of the stock market shareholders, then apple would still keep making iPhones. The only difference would be that the workers get all of the company’s profit, instead of that profit going to people who “own” the company.
Sounds great and all but I always wonder how that works out in practice. It’s not like a miner owning his own pick. Wikipedia says Apple has assets of $352.58 billion and a workforce of 161,000. That’s about $2.2M per employee.
If a worker were to leave Apple, what would happen to their share? Would they be forced to sell it back to the other employees? After all, they would then be a non-worker and no longer eligible to own any of the company. Assuming they sold their complete share at the full value would they then keep that $2.2M?
If a new worker were to join Apple, how would they acquire their share? Would they have to find $2.2M before they could start? Or would their ownership build over time, and at what rate? How long would it take for their share to build?
If a company were to have a bad year where operating expenses exceed income, would the workers be paid anything? Or would those in trouble have to sell some of their share, and to whom?
A company only sells assets after they’ve gone into full bankruptcy liquidation. The company itself would continue to own all the assets. It’s the PROFITS that would go to the workers. So no buy-in or any of that other stuff required. Apple’s profit in 2023 was 170 billion, still a huge number, and yes, all of that profit should go to the workers. There’s no justifiable reason why it should go to anyone other than the people who did the work.
To your other point, there would be a buffer fund for lean years.
OK, so why the phrase “workers own the means of production”? The plain English interpretation of that phrase is substantially different from the workers not owning the means but receiving the profits.
I think the brand and model makes a big difference too. Many older iPhones and Pixels still work great.
And yet their cadence of pushing out new phones every year to replace old ones hasn’t changed.
They won’t get the message unless people stop buying. If they make new things every year, and people actually buy them and turn them into the richest company on the planet, then they’ve got a strategy that works great for them. Stop buying things just because they exist. The companies suck and the people support them.
Apple is always pushing iOS updates that eventually make older hardware crawl to a halt.
Would be nice if they back ported security fixes, but instead they’re just like fuck it, here’s a whole new iOS your old phone can’t really run.
That’s not even close to true. I’m on a six year old iPhone with the latest version of iOS and it works amazingly.
Yeah, I can’t blame people for engrained/culturally accepted consuming habits. That said, I find conversations around trade-in value of iPhones/Pixels/Watches to be so difficult. Like, do you really think you’re coming out ahead of Apple or Google on these deals? Just another drug in the ante.
I agree that system change is needed and all blame cannot be laid on individuals. These companies do pour billions into exploiting everything they can about human psychology.
I’m still using my pixel 3a, which I bought in 2019. It is the 64 GB variant (I think base was 32 GB) and cost me $340. It’s still doing its phone thing pretty well, but it can get a bit warm scrolling the modern bloated web without an ad-blocker running. I really don’t see a reason to upgrade right now.
My wife has a 6a and I recently had to open it up to replace it’s internal speaker that failed.
I was using a Pixel 3a up until recently too, it still works fine but I got a used 6 pro from a relative so I chucked GrapheneOS on it and started using that.
Not all. I have a Pixel 2 and Google royally screwed it over with lhe last update before EOL. If you draw too much power, the phone will spontaneously reboot. For example, when using the camera when the battery is below 50%, or when playing video at full brightness and volume, etc. They acknowledged the problem but refused to fix it because the phone is EOL
My partner’s iPhone is six years old. We’re going to replace it soon because it stopped receiving security updates. She’d keep using it until it completely bricked otherwise.
I appreciate they’re some of the best around for longevity but I wish they’d push further. I have a Fairphone and their firmware support is the same so it’s frustrating that there’s not really an alternative here.
I wish more devices would move in the Framework laptop direction, where hardware can be upgraded and old hardware can be repurposed.
The closest I’ve seen to that would be the pinephone or librem 5, but they have their own issues.
iPhone X? I’m on an XS Max and it’s six years old, still getting not only security updates but full versions of iOS.
Honestly, I’ve never really understood the cellphone as the the image of planned obsolescence. I’ve owned every cellphone I’ve had for at least 5 years, and it’s been totally fine.
How long are we expecting these things to last?
I ride my phones until they completely crap out or are destroyed. Then I get on eBay and get another for $150 or so.
I ve had 2 models of phone where it was the only type of phone I got until they stopped making them :(
I know this is whataboutism but isn’t every developed nation currently a major electronics hub? Why is “US Capitalism” your crosshairs and not just planned obsolescence in general?
The US forces its style of capitalism on everyone who can’t resist them. In fact, the only 2 who can are even worse but we already know China and Russia are bad.
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IMO, there should be minimums set by government to make parts available for a set amount of time… Like they did with the automotive industry.
Maybe not to the same length, I think for vehicles it’s like 20-25 years that parts must be available, for phones, maybe like 6? Years?
I’m not convinced that capitalism could make phones better than the ones we have, for the reasons stated, and I’m not sure that not-capitalism could have made phones as good.
Which maybe wouldn’t be all bad when you consider all the slaves and stuff.
But this implied idea that we should have or are owed better phones is maybe worth some zooming out and some suspicion.
I think the idea isn’t about the quality of the phone, or any other product. It’s about the relationship between the company and the customers.
reminder phone parts could be made interoperable too, massively reducing wasted materials, money and time. AND eliminates this stupid need for a new phone every X years.
but that would cut into their profits so yeah.
“Frequent changes in design”
looks at all the black rectangles
I just upgraded my S9 to an Ulephone 27T pro. The S9 I fixed twice, and had for 6 years, but it’s battery no longer held a charge long enough, the charging port didn’t always work, and it regularly went into meltdown mode for some reason.
The Ulephone is more than 3 times the weight, and twice as thick as my S9. About the most rugged device available. It has more ram than my laptop. I’m hoping it will do me for another 6 years at least. I think that’s a reasonable amount of time for an everyday use device to last for.
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