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Servitization & the myth of dematerialization - Coggle Diagram
Servitization & the myth of dematerialization
Key concepts
Servitization: firms selling access or services instead of products
Dematerialization: the same value from less material
Planned obsolescence: designing products to fail, go out of date or lose support
Rebound effect (Jevons paradox): efficiency makes things cheaper, so we use more of them
History
1924: Phoebus cartel caps light-bulb life at 1000 hours
1988: servitization is coined
1998: US Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it illegal to break digital rights management
2013: Adobe goes subscription-only
2015: France makes planned obsolescence an offense
2024: The Crew shutdown leads to Stop Killing Games, EU Right-to-Repair Directive adopted
Related issues
Material side of dematerialization
E-waste
Water, energy and land for data centers
Digital carbon footprint of manufacturing
"The cloud": data centers, cables, mines
Cobalt, lithium and rare earths
Business logic behind it
Control after sale: licenses instead of ownership, paid features
Recurring revenue from subscriptions
Lock-in: ecosystem of devices makes leaving costly
How ICT amplifies it
Sellers can update, throttle and disable objects after sale
Centralization of control
Software updates leading to obsolescence
Online platforms and cheap shipping make replacing cheaper than repairing
Who is affected
Consumers that buy licenses: games, e-books, films
Owners of connected devices that can be switched off remotely
Independent repairers
Mining and e-waste workers and their communities
Communities near data centers
References & Resources
Perzanowski & Schultz, The End of Ownership (2016)
Vandermerwe & Rada, Servitization of Business (1988)
Cory Doctorow, Enshittification (2025)
Global E-waste Mionitor 2024
Specific angles
Digital ownership: buying a game, e-book or film only gets you a revocable license
Remote obsolescence: connected devices can be throttled, locked or switched off after sold
Footprint of "immaterial" services: cloud, streaming, AI as physical infrastructure