Etymology

planned obsolescence

Today it means: A policy of deliberately planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete or nonfunctional after a certain period. Full definition →

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The story

Coined by Bernard London in 1932 and popularized in the 1960 book The Waste Makers by Vance Packard.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.