In October 2025, Microsoft ended support for its Windows 10 operating system. While many users were able to upgrade to Windows 11 for free, some older devices were not compatible with the update. Microsoft introduced a program to provide critical security updates until October 2026, but owners of incompatible devices ultimately face a difficult choice: upgrade their hardware – a move one analysis suggests could send up to 240 million devices to landfill – or continue using a device that may be vulnerable to viruses and other malicious threats.

This is just one example of what some people might describe as built-in obsolescence: a product is designed with a shortened life span, either from components breaking or, as in this case, incompatibility with modern software. Whether there is any truth in built-in obsolescence, however, is both nuanced and debatable.

Productivity Commission findings

In 2021, the Australian Productivity Commission released a wide-ranging report on the right to repair, raising concerns about planned obsolescence – whereby manufacturers intentionally limit a product’s life span to encourage consumers to buy replacements more frequently. The report identified strategies such as designing products with deliberately weak components, releasing software updates that reduce device performance, and making repairs or upgrades difficult.

In its findings, the commission noted there are significant barriers to consumers being able to repair products and a lack of information makes it harder for consumers to select more durable products. In short, there was scope to improve how products are managed over their life cycle, particularly regarding the reduction of e-waste.

Yet five years on, few, if any, of the commission’s recommendations have been implemented or become law – doing very little to reduce the approximately 500,000 tonnes of e-waste Australia generates annually.

Indeed, a petition to the Treasurer of Australia, Jim Chalmers that wants consumers to have a right to repair to be enshrined in legislation has a mere 4112 signatures.

Legislation attempts

In New Zealand, an estimated 80,000 to 101,000 tonnes of e-waste are sent to landfill each year – one of the highest per-capita rates in the world. In a bid to reduce this volume, in 2025 the Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill was read to the New Zealand Parliament, but later withdrawn (effectively shelved or dropped). If passed, it would have required manufacturers to provide spare parts and repair information to consumers and independent repairers, extending the life span of products.

Consumer advocacy organisation Consumer NZ had thrown its support behind the bill, collecting more than 21,000 signatures from New Zealanders calling for the introduction of repairability labels on household appliances and electronic devices. The organisation stated its research revealed consumer goods aren’t living up to their expected life spans. For example, the consumer expectation is that a cordless vacuum will last five years, but research concludes they work for 2.2 years on average.

“A corded vacuum should last for eight years, but consumers have told us they last 4.8 years on average,” Consumer NZ said in a statement.

Consumer choice

Alan FitzGerald, a fractional chief technology officer for accounting firms, collects and uses old hand tools because they are well made. “If you find a tool that’s 40 or 50 years old, it shows it’ll last and if you treat it well, it might have another 50 or 100 years in it,” he says. “If you have something that works, it’s pretty much guaranteed to continue working if you look after it.”

However, the argument doesn’t extend to software and technology, he says, because there’s always something newer and better coming along.

In its report, the Australian Productivity Commission agreed. Many people choose to replace technology before it reaches end of life because a new gadget or piece of software has been released. There’s little evidence of companies intentionally making phone and computer hardware life spans shorter, the report asserts.

FitzGerald says accounting technology is the perfect example of tools not standing still. The basic principles of double-entry bookkeeping have been around for centuries and everything since leverages off that foundation.

“With accounting, it’s the technology that enables accountants to get the numbers or the information they’re searching for,” he says, “and that’s the constantly evolving component of it all.”

New tools for new times

In some cases, older, ‘built to last’ products are simply out of step with modern requirements and standards. For example, it’s likely the refrigerant in your grandparents’ fridge would now be seen as a pollutant and many old appliances chewed through electricity. Modern fridges are objectively better, cleaner and more energy efficient, even if you won’t be regaling your grandkids with stories about how the old LG in the shed is going to outlive you.

For accountants, the same lesson applies. Yes, in theory you could be running Windows 3.1 on a Compaq 386 with a copy of Excel from 1991 – but would you really want to? Modern hardware is faster, more efficient and enables software like Microsoft 365, which lets you do things only futurists were dreaming of in the early 1990s.

What remains to be seen is whether Australia and New Zealand follow the lead of regions such as Europe, which already has extended producer responsibility (EPR) provisions in place for some sectors, and is implementing legislation on 31 July that will make manufacturers repair, rather than replace, some consumer goods. These measures may not solve our e-waste problems, but they do provide a serious incentive for manufacturers to invest in the quality and longevity of their products.