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Definition: Planned Obsolescence is a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so that it becomes obsolete (i.e., unfashionable, or no longer functional) after a certain period of time. The rationale behind this strategy is to generate long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases (referred to as "shortening the replacement cycle"). It is the deliberate shortening of a lifespan of a product to force consumers to purchase replacements. In simple terms, the ultimate goal is to optimize and align the lifetime of components of a product. Or to make you buy products again and again, depending how you look at it. Also called Design for Lifetime.