About a month ago, we saw how you never really own your internet-connected smart devices, how you’re essentially just renting them until it becomes inconvenient for the provider. This Wall Street Journal article I read has more examples of such devices and the consequences of them ceasing to work:
- An automated pet feeder that stopped dispensing food even though its reservoir was topped up because the company was facing pandemic-related trouble.
- A stationary bike, whose main selling point was live workout competitons with other owners, disabled all of its tech because it lost a legal dispute, leaving its bikes no different from traditional ‘dumb’ exercycles.
- An in-vehicle diagnostic tool from 2016 that promised 5 years of 3G connectivity shut down along with the company itself, again because of pandemic-related business challenges.
These couple of lines towards the end of the article sum up the issue well
That’s the cost of the pace of technology today. The vinyl record has gone mostly unchanged for over 50 years, and my record player has never required a firmware update. All of our newer gadgets will likely be obsolete within three, four, or five years, depending on the abilities and willingness of the companies that make them. We pay for new gear, gumming up landfills with our retired, defunct cyber curios when we fail to recycle them properly.