“Fifty ways to leave your Cell Phone”: Product Obsolescence, Product Replacement and Product Attachment.

Decreasing life span and accelerated product replacement process for technological products refer to the crucial question of product relative and psychological obsolescence, raising environmental issues. The objective of the research is to explore how product attachment remains or is expressed at the time of the replacement, as product attachment may lead to a longer life span and better care. Results of a qualitative study based on letters to a replaced object reveal that individuals address their cell phone as if it was a person. They use the semantic field of relationship, love, friendship and companionship. Product attachment may have influenced the destiny of the replaced product : replaced yet kept in most cases, thus maintaining a physical proximity but hindering efficient recycling.