Solving the paradox of gadget-lust versus sustainability

(And why we don’t need an ‘Economy of Less’ to do it)

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Let me start out with an example. Some time ago the iPhone 3GS was introduced. Now if you, like me, already owned a regular iPhone 3G, you, like me, felt a little sorry for yourself. Suddenly your brand new shiny state of the art GSM, had turned into an ‘old model’. And it’s always like this when we are really happy with something. Eventually a new version gets introduced that outdates the previous one. From being an early adopter and feeling like one is on top of the game, one goes to feeling tired, old, rusty and inadequate.

The whole experience made me wonder why Apple did not make the iPhone 3GS in a way that I could just send in my older 3G and have them replace the old parts with the ones that make the 3GS so much faster. After all, the phones LOOK the same, the housing is as far as I can see the same. And isn’t it common knowledge that chipmakers are able to make faster and faster products that fit into smaller and smaller spaces? Now bear with me here: I am not saying that Apple could have made the iPhone 3G upgradable to the 3GS. Maybe it was just technically impossible. But the issue I want to raise is why nobody is even asking this question. We accept as normal that a company like Apple just cranks out millions of products that will leave its user feel like he is outdated just one or two years later, making these products end up on the recycling belt just so much sooner. I am talking about everyone, consumers and producers, who need to get it into their head that it’s a bad idea to innovate just to be able to sell more products. And that it is a good idea to make sustainable products in view of an economy made to last for future generations. Not one in which gadget lust runs rampant, but one in which products are innovated to use very little energy and last for a very long time.