When the mobile phone discharges quickly, the toothbrush no longer vibrates or you spill a drink on the laptop, you usually buy a new device. A repair seems to be expensive – although many products are only one or two years old. This targeted wear is planned by the industry. For many manufacturers, building devices to last would mean no longer making any sales.
Stefan Schridde knows these industry tricks. He is a business graduate and criticizes the “disposable products” with which the market is flooded. 80 percent of consumer goods could be built in such a way that they lasted three times as long under the same conditions, he says – and without additional costs in production. In an interview, he explains how to identify and rectify the most common built-in errors in electronic devices – and how to find good products on the market.