This often actually exists still, but those companies dont do big marketing and their products will cost 3x that of a "normal" one.
Got links?
Speed queen washing machine
If it'll run in a Laundromat for 30 years.. it'll run in your home.
As I've heard it:
And yes, they are all very expensive. But I want to get me a Speed Queen so bad.
these exist, see speed queen
the cost is going to be higher, though, because "smart" widgets can offset their initial costs through the projeted sale of the data harvested over the life of the widget
most people being ignorant to this and to the inevitable issues with corporate-built "smart" widget infrastructure, the cheapest option will generally be the most popular
my inner doctorow says that the twiddlers did this on purpose to undermine competition, especially considering the attempts to keep those widgets from being liberated
ding ding ding
there can be no (valid) competition against capitalistic cronyism.
"No enshitification" is the new top tier marketing strategy.
There is a nonprofit org called Open Source Ecology that is aiming to create what they call the "Global Village Construction Set", a collection of basic industrial machines required for modern living, designed in a way where everything can be built DIY by a single community (Including modular generators). I imagine that they have a plans for home appliances, I think as of now they're still working on construction equipment.
50/50 chance it sells at a premium compared to other models, making the entire idea useless
Source: Like every project that pretended to do this with their respective market
Why the hell is a light phone more expensive than a mid to high range model smartphone. I'd rather just buy that and swap the ROM if I want to remove google.
Economies of scale and not capturing data as part of your profit model
Where do I sign up?
There’s a huge demand from consumers for that. Just not from investors.
There’s a huge demand from consumers for that.
Is that actually true, though?
I've been thinking about this for a while now, how I just want a basic bitch electric car. No centre console, no futuristic screens, no sensors, no cameras. Give me a normal fucking car with dials, a speedo, some padles on the steering wheel to adjust power output to replace gears and no driver assist. Sell it to me for cheap and let me drive my car. That's all I want.
The problem is that you think that would make the 'just' products cheaper. The reality is that the data and advertising subsidize the costs of the existing options and make them cheaper then what 'just' could sell for.
Case in point: Smeg already does this, and all their products are considered upmarket. They're just really solid normal appliances.
Gonna have to rebrand all that to Just A Dream, unless you have a plan to secure the capital to start that all up, and also somehow not be beholden to short term profit crazed investors who will change that business model.
Hooray! Hypercapitalist Realism!
Great idea for a quick cash grab but then you will lose growth. You will run into insta pot problems where the product was too good and lacked room for innovation. But someone should do it anyways.
Imagine making a billion dollars off putting a device in everyone's home and thinking that's not enough
I would be totally cool with running a business like that. I don’t need to be making more and more every year if I have enough money to be comfortable, and I’d feel way better if I was in charge of a company making products that respect their user.
The Sims did it first, except the brand was called "Justa". Justa dishwasher. Justa fridge.
A total absense of tech would be bad for a washing machine. With a really simple conductivity sensor (basically just two electrodes on the sides of a plastic pipe) and an opacity sensor (an IR LED and an LDR on opposite sides of a clear pipe), you can measure how much stuff is dissolved in water and how much insoluable stuff is suspended. That then means that you can keep circulating the soapy water until it stops getting dirtier, then keep rinsing it out until it stops getting cleaner, which then means you can have the cycle times adjust themselves to how soiled the load is, instead of just making them as long as the worst case scenario might require and wasting energy, water, and time on an average load.
There's tradeoffs - simplicity, repairability, efficiency.
Take washers, for example. I was looking at Speed Queen washers to replace mine. On paper they are great, more durable. But it turns out that while they have physical knobs and switches, newer models still hide a circuit board inside, so the gap between commercial and consumer models is shrinking (and not in the direction we want.)
The Speed Queen washers also have nearly half the capacity of off the shelf consumer washers, and use twice the amount of water and electricity. I did the math, and at the current utility and washer prices I'd break even replacing the washer every 5 years.
Furthermore, the local appliance repair shop that I trust told me it could take them weeks to get replacement parts for Speed Queen. For a laundromat that's not a huge deal when it's one washer out of twenty, for a single machine home it's a problem.
Yes, I do wish that consumer appliances were more reliable. But barring that, the next best thing is easily and quickly repairable, and on that matter there's brands that are qualitatively and quantitatively better in that regard than others.
It's the Linux philosophy in appliances. I'm down.
Some of these products already exist. They are expensive. If you go back and look at the long-lasting appliances of the past, they were also expensive.
One example is Speed Queen washers/dryers. Also Bosch dishwashers.
Many of these become enshittified. Bosh is an example. My sister kitted out her kitchen with many Bosch appliances when she renovated, like 10 years ago. All have had issues.
The fridge has peeling faux chrome handles, the microwave button/wheel/control had to be replaced, the washer had the drum bearing fail, and the drum housing is sealed, so you have to replace the whole drum assembly, which costs as much as an entire budget washer...
I'll invest in this guy today.
I've been pondering if one could make open source controllers to replace the "smarts" in these with something that actually just does the job, and even customizable. With different sensor addons/adapters for different makes and models.
That's like Ali G saying he invented the PlayStation 2 because he thought about it when the playstation came out.
And I will sell it in a store called "in stock" because we have these things called "computers" that can reorder a product once one sells so the shelves aren't empty. Because American companies have never heard of that concept.
"no tech"
No technology huh?
So a bucket, washboard, mangle, and piece of string for laundry.
An ice box or cellar for refrigeration
And an open fire for cooking.
bucket, string, washboard
No. Just a pond you have to jump into. We said no technology.
ice box or cellar
Exfuckingcuse me?
an open fire
Nothing penned in. Has to be wild and burning down the village.
I'd just build my own, like I did for my water purifier. It ain't that hard.
I have never seen someone build their own washing machine or refrigerator. It's intriguing. A whole new level of diy
So, right now you have like a modern Samsung fridge with a screen and app, or something, but if a company produced a nicer simple one, then you'd finally decide to build your own?
https://frame.work/ kinda does this for computers, it would be nice to more manufactures follow this lead.
This kind of anti-enshittification marketing is starting to gain traction I think.
A big part of Valve's launch was saying stuff like "of course you can run whatever you want on it, it's yours!"
I'm not against it having an open API to allow it to be controlled by some computer system, though don't even bring up the word "cloud".
Similar to my idea called to make a clothing brand called “brandless”
No logo, no graphics, no distinguished designs
Just plain basic clothes in basic colors, using fabrics that last.
No itchy washing label either. All product information in detail available on site. At most a product number printed or sown on the inside.
I mean Uniqlo is kinda like this. No brand (at least in most of their basic stuff, I‘m not counting their new shit), long lasting and not expensive
He'll be out of business in a years time!
Seriously a great idea though. I'd buy all their stuff.
Shut up and take my money.
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