Why planned durability is a good thing

Do you love to have the latest technology and so buy a new phone or TV as soon as the next version is released? Or do you feel brands are pushing you to want the next new model by creating a climate of FOMO (fear of missing out), and you secretly wish for a longer refresh cycle? Alternatively, do you always wait until your current piece of tech has stopped working before reinvesting? What happens if, for example, you would love a new dishwasher, but even though you keep running yours without rinse-aid or salt, your current model just won’t die?

There’s obviously a balance to be sought between brands’ desires to drive consumer demand for the latest technology versus users’ needs for a longer refresh cycle in order to keep costs down.

At Lexmark, we get interesting insight into this dynamic from all the RFPs we get asked to provide. Tellingly, most RFPs ask for a three-to-five-year life cycle refresh, which raises the question: do manufacturers make their technology to last only as long as customers expect it to?

At Lexmark, we consider ourselves to be more than simply a print and MFP provider. We are a technology partner chosen by companies to help drive their business forward. That means we look out for our customers’ interests. We know that most devices built with a three-to-five-year lifespan will actually be in use for at least six years, and start to incur higher maintenance costs, so we intentionally engineer to support a longer life for our products.

We call it planned durability and it’s a good thing for end-users, manufacturers and the environment.

Here’s why:

Our customers gain robust products built with industrial metal frames, processors capable of handling future business requirements and advanced sensors, diagnostics and security. This means fewer hardware interventions resulting in time and cost savings backed-up with the longest standard product guarantee in the industry for small-to-medium sized businesses.

As a manufacturer, we gain happy customers with a greater sense of loyalty who are more likely to spread the word about their great experience. This is worth more than gold.

And finally, the environment gains because our long-life components help eliminate waste and improve serviceability. Working in concert with our customers, we are able to improve recycling, reduce consumables usage and ensure each product delivers a fully optimised return on investment. This is what we want for our customers, because they are our partners.