I think we can all agree that planning for your device to be quickly thrown away and replaced is a scummy tactic of companies to generate sales. Its understandable if a part isn’t as sturdy and would require a huge workaround if not used, but to fully plan a device or system that you know is going to be irrelevant by a date set by the company producing it is bad faith. Unfortunately that is most likely going to be the case with some of, if not most, smart devices. Companies love to slap ‘smart’ on something without thoroughly figuring out all the nuances of making it a reality. This week I read an article where the Tado thermostat the author installed, freaked out when not connected to the internet and set the house to ninety five degrees. The developers had assumed the device would always be connected and thus there was a major bug in the system, which according to the author of the article, only ceased when they disconnected their boiler.
The Tado wireless thermostat, from their website
But how does a thermostat going out of control tie into planned obsolescence. Well here is the time I argue FOR it. What happens if Tado suddenly went under and can’t host their servers anymore? Thats a lot of potentially dangerous malfunctions that could cook people alive in their homes. Companies need to look at all aspects when designing and implementing IoT devices. We have become engrossed with live service technology and sometimes those services go offline. Major weather events are getting more common as the environment becomes more of a pressing issue. Hurricanes and tropical storms may knock out internet and or power and, instead of being the least problematic thing that could happen, it could affect all smart devices in your house. It feels like in a bid for products to come out faster, design considerations get thrown out the window. Here is a great article I found outlining design considerations for IoT devices. Hopefully better realized products can mitigate the low value, high price, of IoT as it stands today.