Planned Obsolescence? That Trick Only Works at Apple  Apple is
worth emulating in many ways. But not when it comes to how the
company intentionally limits the lifespan of its products.   The
notion of planned obsolescence, or the practice of designing
products so they have a limited effective lifespan, may seem
like some smart, practical economics to some. And at times that
is true. But for entrepreneurs, deliberately limiting the life
of products and services is a bad mistake.  When iOS 7 came
whistling down the data pipe to older model iPhones, it must
have first seemed like an early holiday present. No cost, and
all sorts of new goodies. But as Catherine Rampell wrote in the
New York Times, good news turned to bad as her iPhone 4 became
"a lot more sluggish."  The battery was starting to run down
much faster, too. But the same thing seemed to be happening to a
lot of people who, like me, swear by their Apple products. When
I called tech analysts, they said that the new operating system
(iOS 7) being pushed