2025-07-10 - Planned Obsolescence and the Death of Great Products
Season 6 - Episode 48 - 07-10-2025
Casey takes a ladder in his studio to take a VHS tape from 2004 about planned obsolescence. Casey's first viral video about the iPod and its non replaceable battery. It was the first time he learned about planned obsolescence. It is business strategy. Back in the days, the products were built to last and it was a marketing strategy too. The ads were referring to the fact that the product may outlive you. Then everything became disposable. The big corporations make everything possible to earn more money, and at the same time new products are always better... and people love new stuff. Casey is a big retro gamer. His favorite console is the gameboy. He shows a case with lots of different gameboys, even some new ones that emulates lots of games on a single low cost device. Palmer Luckey, the tech billionaire is making a $200 portable console. You can find $50 gameboy things that you can play every game on or pay $200 for a new old fashioned game boy that only has one feature. Why? So Casey calls him... or would like because he doesn't have his number. But he was able through friends to connect with him to have his answer. And even more, he was invited to his house. Figurine collection in his place. Lots of anime and playboy figurines. His wife likes them too. His kitchen counter is packed with random stuff he receives. He is also in the process of building a driving dry suit with and ultrasonic welder. Holographic screen. He is always tinkering on stuff. Back to the gameboy. The idea of the "ModRettro Chromatic" is to make the ultimate gameboy, a hardware compatible with the original gameboy, with no cost limits. the screen is made of lab grown sapphire crystal, the shell is not plastic but magnesium alloy, the buttons are PBT plastic used in high-end mechanical keyboards. AA batteries, rechargeable if you want. And if you use rechargeable batteries, you can recharge them inside the Chromatic Gameboy using usb-c. It is the opposite of what other devices are built: planned obsolescence. It is the last Gameboy, you don't have to think about replacing it one day because of how it's built. It won't expire. They both are Super hardcore Turbo Nerds but they also like durable products made during always innovating times. The 30 years old gameboy is not less fun today as it was back then. Casey likes the romance of single purpose devices. They don't do everything, they just do one thing, but they do it right. Endless scrolling may be fun, but sitting down and watching a movie in the theater is so much better. Building a whole company on this idea is crazy, something only a tech billionaire can achieve. The Gameboy is just one product. The company is seeking for other products and rebuild them to last. It may only appeal to few hundreds of people but that's what Palmer Luckey wants to try. Casey asked for a job in the company. They said no but he managed to get something like an internship, no salary, but he has a nice business card: Casey Neistat, chief storyteller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAZRqzcZRKo
