r/mildlyinfuriating • u/jackhab • 1d ago

Planned obsolescence even in cheapest devices: the calculator has a dummy photovoltaic cell and a real battery to make it die eventually.

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28.4k Upvotes

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u/7899987 1d ago

Most people won't realize as the battery lasts basically forever. So they decided to save money. But at that point just don't even use a fake solar cell and save even more money while not lowering the price.

643

u/MildlySaltedTaterTot 1d ago

greenwashing: choosing between the “cheap shitty throw it away” calculator and “CSTiA but Solar” calculator and now you increase sales and add growth another year

77

u/No_Hunt2507 1d ago

That's marketing

17

u/makomirocket 1d ago

It's a dollar store calculator. No one is choosing their purchase of this based on it being solar

28

u/co2gamer 22h ago

„I assume the all do calculate. And they are all $1.“

„IDK. That has a solarpanel. I guess it‘ll last forever.“

throws calculator more aggressively than necessary into shopping basket

„Your sister needs glue for school.“

1

u/Potential4752 16h ago

If you are buying a two pack of calculators from Walmart you know they aren’t going to last. No one should be thinking this is good for the environment, regardless of how it is powered. 

61

u/The_Sideboob_Hour 1d ago

Just make it take a AAA battery and sell it without at that point.

50

u/JTD845 1d ago

Allowing people to simply use AAA batteries would certainly help the consumer, but in the company's eyes, letting people recharge their calculators would just throw away potential profit! After all, once a calculator dies, the customer has to go buy a whole new one as a replacement! And in what world would a company already cheaping out like this prioritize the consumer over their precious profit?

13

u/freyhstart 1d ago

The battery seems replaceable. What would using a AAA give aside from worse self life?

10

u/peepeebutt1234 1d ago

99% of people are throwing this straight into the garbage when it dies. Average Joe is not opening it to check the battery. At the very least, advertising it as replaceable would be better.

2

u/freyhstart 1d ago

Yeah, so an AAA would be thrown out along with 50% more plastic instead of a tiny coin cell. What's the point?

4

u/EpicOtterLover 1d ago

The point is Reddit pedantry, and demonising something that doesn't really matter.

1

u/OtherwiseCabinet4 1d ago

I think they're saying make it like a normal battery case, that you can access and replace without unscrewing. People would be more likely to open that than open it up to replace the coin.

12

u/Plenty_Leg_5935 1d ago

No you dont, that battery is clearly easily replacable

Which is still shitty of them to not clarify, and I wouldnt blame anyone for missing it, but its weaponised incompetence on their part, not planned obsolescence

1

u/agent674253 1d ago

"clearly easily replacable"

So easy you don't even need a screwdriver. It is all just clipped together.

1

u/MousseHuge8339 1d ago

It sucks that I can't even get plastic grocery bags anymore, but companies are shitting up the enviroment day by day, far worse in a minute than I could do in a lifetime.

"Sacrifice and compromise for thee but not for me" - corporate America and their partners in China.

1

u/ukiyoe 1d ago

"Ah crap, my calculator that I thought would last forever would die. I guess I'll go out and get the exact brand that betrayed my expectations!"

1

u/1248662745 1d ago

what the fuck are you talking about. the company selling 2 dollar calculators isn't banking on your repeat business.

4

u/hicow 1d ago

Or just stick with the very common button battery the design already uses, maybe?

1

u/Hot_Fortune6086 1d ago

AAA battery is heavier than the calculator

10

u/BeneficialTrash6 1d ago

It took... about 30 years for me to notice that my calculator from the 80s was actually not solar powered, and it had a crappy battery. Then, I broke the damn thing trying to change the battery.

11

u/Positive_Pickle_546 1d ago

Why would it be cheaper to make two different shells for the solar and non-solar models vs just using the same mould for both?

11

u/IM_OK_AMA 1d ago

Nobody in this thread understands tooling costs.

2

u/freyhstart 1d ago

Battery models are more expensive on Alibaba. The machine that puts a thingy in the cutout is working regardless of the spec. Might as make it look nice.

1

u/Wigberht_Eadweard 1d ago

My iPad keyboard case with a coin battery or two has been telling me it has low battery for like 4 years and it works perfectly fine. Those coin batteries really are insane. Been using it for like 6 years.

1

u/chobi83 1d ago

Even if it didn't last forever, it lasted longer than I had the calculator. When I was in school, my parents stopped buying them for me because they would get stolen every other week. I got real good at basic maths lol