In addition to developing product packaging and labeling, product managers are also responsible for monitoring the quality of their products. There are many ethical dilemmas that product managers face when dealing with the issue of product quality—and one of the most significant ethical dilemmas is planned obsolescence.

Planned obsolescence is the practice of designing a product to become obsolete, or unusable, before it should reasonably need replacement. For example, have you ever noticed that just as the newest version of a cell phone, laptop, or other electronic device comes out, the old version suddenly stops functioning as well as it used to? Or maybe the apps on your friend’s new phone don’t work on your phone, which is an older model. These are examples of planned obsolescence, a business practice that many manufacturers are criticized for practicing.

Product managers may feel pressure to implement planned obsolescence to make more money for their companies, since planned obsolescence forces customers to make more frequent purchases. Customers often complain that companies are “ripping them off” by implementing planned obsolescence. Not everyone is opposed to the practice, though—supporters argue that planned obsolescence can benefit customers by providing them with new and improved versions of products that make their lives easier. What do you think? Is it ethical to design products that are intended to become obsolete in just a few years (or months)? As you can see, this is a difficult dilemma for product managers.

Do you think that Apple times the “death” of its iPhones to align with the release of its newest model? To hear more about the controversy, and to hear two different perspectives on planned obsolescence, check out this news clip from CNN called “Apple iPhone Planned Obsolescence.”