Planned Obsolescence

50-year old prescient ruminations on the dangers of pursuing style over substance:

"To comprehend the strategic mapping going on behind all the commotion about styling, we need first of all to understand the shell game Detroit plays with the public. The body shell is crucial to obsolescence planning."
- Vance Packard, "The Waste Makers" (1960)

If the transportation of Things (Industrial Age) has evolved into the transportation of Ideas (Information Age) then the parallels are even more timely. And if Cupertino and Redmond (and even San Rafael) don't care whether or not they're running headlong into becoming the Detroit of the Information Age? Well, then I doubt it'll take 50 years to get there.

Long term success requires a rigorous focus on:

- Style of (not over) Substance
- "Hypercentralization" of Function
- The Compelling Advantage of "Implementability"
- Predictable Efficiency
- Ubiquity of Access

And yes - as an avid Mac user the Style:Substance Irony Ratio(TM) has my spider senses tingling. Especially when the launch of a new color of iPod/iPhone/iMac/iEtc is considered by some as a cultural event worthy of standing in line. In other places, people stand in line for, well - food.

More to follow. Need to head to the Apple store for an overpriced, white audio cable...