Product Design: Planned obsolescence (as a feature?)

There are good features and there are bad ones. If true, Apple is using planned obsolescence features in its iPhones since 2008:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11963122

Apple explains the "feature":
https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/20/16800058/apple-iphone-slow-fix-battery-life-capacity

Quoting:
""I believe, as do others, that Apple introduced a change to limit performance when battery condition decreases past a certain point.

"If the performance drop is due to the 'sudden shutdown' fix, users will experience reduced performance without notification.

"Users expect either full performance, or reduced performance with a notification that their phone is in low-power mode.

"This fix creates a third, unexpected state."

Without this warning Poole believes that the fix will cause users to believe their phone is slow so they should replace it, rather than the battery which is actually at fault.

"This will likely feed into the 'planned obsolescence' narrative," he added.

Every time Apple launches a new handset people seemingly flock to Google to ask why their current iPhone or iOS is slow.

This trend has been seen every year since Apple released the iPhone 3G in 2008.

Explanations for the slowness range from Apple's iOS causing problems on older devices to the firm deliberately slowing down old phones to make people buy the new handsets.

This latter explanation is known as planned, or built-in, obsolescence.

This is the idea that manufacturer's deliberately make their products in such a way that they become out-of-date sooner.

By doing this, the companies can encourage customers to buy the latest model of a certain product."

Updated: 2017-12-08, Apple "explains".

Product Design / System Engineering and the importance of standards - Samsung Galaxy Note 7

A very interesting article on product / system engineering / design and the importance of [international safety] standards.
From the Wall Street Journal:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-samsung-must-do-to-win-back-our-trust-1476218021?tesla=y

Read on and be appalled:
- There is no mandatory safety standard (in the US, in the EU) for mobile devices and since things could really catch fire (for instance on a plane) maybe there should be
- Sometimes the standards do exist but are not mandatory
- For some countries who deems a component or a phone all together suitable for a certain purpose is the company that produces it (really?)
- Components are subcontracted and due tot the secrecy involved (trade secrets are... secret), one company might not know what exactly is incorporating into its design (e.g. Batteries are certified / labeled by other companies; are all suppliers the same? Are all lots the same?)
- The problems can either come from hardware, or software but in the end, it doesn't really matter. Sometimes the recall chain is not giving you/collecting you the much needed information which is input for rework. This was a problem for Samsung (in the US) because it does not have a distribution chain in the US unlike Apple
- A compliance statements (the CE marking for instance) is just a statement by the manufacturer indicating they [think they] are compliant. Nobody checks it [before going into market - of course it will be checked after "something" goes wrong]. In fact most of the times there are no requirements for compliance testing (which is a different and safer thing, because some independent entity is analysing your work product)
- The fact that there is no word for re-recall: Because it rarely happens at such a scale, Samsung stopped the production (!). Nobody would trust on a recall of the recall. How many recalls would it take for Samsung to produce something that works properly as most products work (in terms of catching fire)?

The bottom line:
- Samsung shares are going down. There's talks of 15 K M EUR of losses.
- But worst than that: There's the image / reputation thing... Once lost it typically is like... Virginity.

So what do you think on the lack of process (and international standards) on product
/ system design? Is it a bore or is it much needed? We carry those things on the pocket of our trousers. Into planes. We are giving it to our kids...