One of the primary critiques of Apple products from my tech-savvy friends, is the limitations of replacing hardware pieces compared to their more diversified competitors. In Jinna’s blog, she points out Apple’s tendency to exploit the exclusivity of their products continuously and subtlety, which in consumer sustainability activist Annie Leonard’s view (see embed video), are prime examples of perceived and planned obsolescence. However, this theory is certainly nothing new and has frequently been highlighted by anti-consumerists and popularized in documentaries such as The Light Bulb Conspiracy and The Story of Stuff in order to criticize corporations for intentionally selling products that are designed to be disposable in order to encourage mass consumption.
Apple’s business model and their marketing strategies have proven to be more than successful in capturing the market, but their ethical values upon further examination may appear flawed, especially when basked in the glow of The Light Bulb Conspiracy, which leads to more question: can a business be sustained if its own goods discourage future purchases? Can a corporation be socially responsible if it is a proponent of the culture of fast fashion?