The consumer electronics industry has embraced obsolescence as a way of increasing profits. Smartphones, laptops, and media players are designed to fail, central to this is the rechargeable battery. Many manufacturers now seal the battery into the device, so rather than simply swapping the battery when it reaches its end of life, users are strong-armed into buying a new product. However, when it comes to medical devices obsolescence on such a large scale is unacceptable, as Rob Phillips, sales and marketing director of Accutronics, explains The consumer market seems to have accepted that planned obsolescence, or planned failure, is simply a fact of modern life. In the field of medical technology, however, the idea of having to replace a costly device because the battery, for example, is suddenly obsolete after less than two years would cause uproar.
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