I'm sure I'm not the only one holding an $800+ mobile phone that will be obsolete in two years. You know, just in time for the contract to run out. Technology has a very short shelf life. I don't like that aspect of very expensive technology. I have an iPhone 7, but now the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X are both available. There's a lot of pressure to have the latest and greatest model of cell phone, tablet, and computer. Who can afford to upgrade once a year when new models hit the market? Eight hundred dollars for a phone, $800 for a tablet, and $2,000 for a new laptop is just too much money to toss out the window for tech that I'll have to replace in 12 to 18 months. And now we're told that certain vendors slow down tech that is only slightly out of date. That's taking planned obsolescence a bit too far.

Early in the 20th century, carmakers realized that no one would buy a new car model if the new ones looked exactly like the old ones, so they gave minor facelifts to distinguish among different model years. New taillights, new grilles, and perhaps a dashboard redesign is all it took to attract new buyers and traders.

Technology manufacturers have taken a lesson from the carmaker playbook, in that the feature list from model to model is not significant. The result is that people stick to their old tech. Frankly, I would never have changed from my iPhone 4 had it not become impossible to use because of its slowness and inability to hold a charge.

I had to purchase an iPhone 5 to have a usable device.

My iPhone 4 and my iPhone 5 are both lying on my desk – in perfect shape but not in use, while my new but now obsolete iPhone 7 gets older every day.

And it's not just Apple that makes products that we must replace on an almost annual basis. I feel like laptops are basically disposable these days. Even the MacBook Pro has a very short lifespan. I picked up a 2015 model MacBook Pro a few days ago that felt very sluggish. I didn't want to buy it, because I was afraid that the newest Mac OS X incarnation would kill its performance completely.

Just so you don't think I'm a chronic complainer, I am happy to offer a solution for this planned obsolescence madness that keeps pulling dollars out of my pocket. My solution is to make our technology gadgetry modular. It's the equivalent of upgrading your car one piece at a time – new tires, new grille, new taillight assembly, new dashboard, new seats, and perhaps even a complete new unibody shell.

Think of the aftermarket possibilities for tech gadgets. A modular gadget might also bring down the price of replacing those potato chip brittle phone screens. I've invested several hundred dollars in replacing those only to have them break just outside of the 90-day warranty period. You could replace the outer shell, the screen, the battery, the guts (mainboard?), and other components. Imagine if you couldn't buy a new charger cable and had to replace your phone every time you needed a new one of those. Modularity keeps the dollars flowing from my wallet to the manufacturer, it keeps my technology up to date, and it provides a less expensive path for more people to buy into and maintain brand loyalty. I mean, I'll never own anything but an iPhone, but I have friends who bounce from Android to iPhone to Windows phones to whatever is available just to have newer technology regardless of manufacturer or features. Some people surprisingly use their phones as just phones. We hate those people. By "we" I mean we as branded gadget manufacturers hate those people.

Modularity means that I can upgrade the aspects of my technology that I need and want to and maintain a reasonable cost control over those transitions. Giving the technology consumer control over planned obsolescence means that manufacturers will also enjoy a steady income flow and not a burst of income at refresh time. It all makes so much sense. Probably by the time anyone implements my brilliant plan, it will be obsolete.

Ken Hess * ADMIN Senior Editor