This Latest EU Legislation Might Make Android Phones Last Longer
Planned obsolescence has been a common feature among most products
because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could
potentially end up making the product break down in a fixed timeline
thereby forcing consumers to purchase a replacement. This trend can be
seen in the world of smartphones as well, with many smartphone
manufacturers ceasing to provide long term support in the form of
updates and security patches.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the EU is starting to draft legislation
that might change all of this. This legislation will mandate that
smartphone companies provide consistent feature updates for a minimum of
three years, and security patches for a minimum of five years with all
things having been considered and taken into account.
This can
help consumers get a lot more usage out of their smartphones than might
have been the case otherwise, since they would no longer have to replace
their phones every few years just to gain access to updates once again.
There is another major advantage of this legislation as well, namely
that it will allow e-waste to be reduced considerably once all has been
said and is now out of the way.
Most consumers don’t want to buy a
phone for the sake of it, and they are usually driven by necessity.
This results in an unnecessary increase in the amount of electronic
waste that is produced, and this legislation can be an important first
step towards fixing the matter once and for all.
This legislation
can make it so that consumers can use their smartphones for at least
half a decade as long as they take good care of it, and it will be
interesting to see if it has the positive impact that so many are saying
it will. While it might cut into the profit margins of smartphone
manufacturers, in spite of the fact that this is the case they can still
keep their sales up by innovating instead of designing their products
to become obsolete too quickly.
m