R.I.P my PS3

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Would also add that 'designing' a defect on your product can also mean you buy a competitors product instead of a replacement of the same.

With mobile phones, in at least 10 cases I've heard of over the last year, people who have owned Blackberry phones have had some technical difficult that causes it the need to be replaced or fixed, at a cost to the customer. In some cases they agree to do so, but other times they've seen better phones or more appealing ones to themselves and as such buy the competitors phone, in my experience iPhones.

In terms of consoles, if your PS3 breaks down and youve lost said hard drive data, then you're likely to consider cheaper alternatives like an Xbox.

It's true that making products less durable can be more advantageous, this usually only applies in necessary goods such as washing machines or computers. A gaming system would only be necessary for people who rely on it. But there aren't enough people demanding for that to create more profit then loss in the gaming console competitive market. Like stated they make their money in other, much more economically and morally correct.

 

Not if they have a worse defect and you have a monopoly based on patents and licensing contracts. If you have games that they want, people will jump through several hoops to get it. See: Microsoft fans. Not just the console, but their operating systems and other products.

And yet the Xbox has even more defects than the PS3. It seems that there is a certain level of dispensable-ness that people are willing to pay a certain amount for. The question then is not how defective is the device, but how defective is it compared with the cost. So a company will try to find out just how much they can take advantage of people. Why do you think so much money is spent on the marketing part of any major producer?

Oh, wow. I disagree completely about intellectual property and patent-based monopolies being more economically and morally correct. In fact, I prefer someone making a sub-par product in order to sell more to someone using intellectual property against those who might improve on their products.

 

And this is why we can't have nice things!