Planned obsolescence is *somewhat...*and I stress somewhat a canard at this point outside of very specific product types.

The MTTF on pretty much all modern computing equipment (and the boards inside of them) is much longer than the horsepower in any given device can keep up with increasing software demands or the consumables that may be attached to using them, like toner cartridge types for printers, for example.

Preventing repair easily by hard coding preventative measures into specific components...or burying components in assemblies to keep them from being serviced easily very much is a problem. Thing is, with both of those, the failure time is often governed by typical component failure, not necessarily the company setting a specific time they want you to go out and have to buy something.