Are short product lifetimes ineluctable? An exploration of consumers’ perceptions of lifetime extension strategies

There is consensus that product lifetimes are generally decreasing. To create a sustainable society, the circular economy promotes slowing down the use of resources by lengthening product lifetimes. This is especially important for electronic products that are energy-intensive in their production phase and create vast amounts of waste after use. While design strategies have been proposed to lengthen product lifetimes, it is unclear whether consumers deem them effective. This paper proposes an overview of lifetime extension strategies for electronic products and reports the results of a quantitative study with 617 participants who were asked to evaluate the extent to which these strategies could have extended the lifetime of a recently replaced product. Results indicate that the durability / reliability strategy is most effective. However, consumers are not yet convinced of the effectiveness of most strategies