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Is Repairability Enough? Big Data Insights Into Smartphone Obsolescence and Consumer Interest in Repair by Tamar Makov; Colin Fitzpatrick is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Is Repairability Enough? Big Data Insights Into Smartphone Obsolescence and Consumer Interest in Repair about?

A dominant narrative surrounding smartphone lifespans suggests that their objective functional capabilities deteriorate rapidly and that if only devices were more repairable consumers would use them longer thereby reducing demand for new production and e-waste generation. Here we use a big-data approach to help unpack this narrative and examine two related yet distinct aspects: smartphone performance and obsolescence, and consumers interest in repair. Examining over 3.5 million iPhone benchmarking test scores, we reveal that the objective performance of devices remains very stable over time and does not rapidly deteriorate as common wisdom might suggest. In contrast, testing frequency varies substantially. This discrepancy suggests that factors other than objective performance meaningfully influence consumers' perceptions of smartphone functionality and obsolescence. Relatedly, our analysis of 22 million visits to a website offering free repair manuals revels that interest in repair declines exponentially over time and that repairability does not necessarily prolong consumer's interest in repair. Taken together, our findings indicate that non-technical aspects, such as mental depre

Who reads Is Repairability Enough? Big Data Insights Into Smartphone Obsolescence and Consumer Interest in Repair?

Author

Tamar Makov; Colin Fitzpatrick

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Published

2021

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)