Innovation or change for change’s sake?

“All change is not growth, as all movement in not forward”

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow, Novelist, 1963

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Firstly, a confession: I am an Apple homeboy, I tried Samsung for a year or two and went the whole hog; put my Apple watch in a drawer and went for the Samsung Phone/Watch combination. What did it for me was the vast chasm of quality and functionality (reflected in the price) between the Apple watch and the Samsung equivalent, so I returned to Apple with a modest new iPhone and my old Apple watch, and I am much happier for it.

I remember receiving my first iPhone in 2007, it was a revelation it was aesthetically pleasing and technologically brilliant, like no other phone before it or available at the time, instantly making my iPod obsolete (itself a technological revelation) it was true innovation! Yet since the introduction of the iPhone on 29 June 2007, there have been 47

different models; that’s a staggering 2.5+ models per year. Indeed, since October 2020 Apple have been releasing four models per year (5 in 2020). I ask is all that change really innovation or change for change’s sake or is it neither; just a company with a dedicated, cult-like, captivated consumer base, capitalising on that asset by farming cash from them on a regular basis.

The real point is that none of these matters to the environmentally sick planet that we live on, innovation, change for change’s sake, exploitation of consumers; whatever is driving the pace of change in Information Technology alone leaves a trail of destruction in its wake. Apple is just one organisation amongst thousands; I am just using them as an example here because their data is easy to access. Apple sell more than 225 million devices per year and by 2023 they had sold more than 1.9 billion, the numbers are staggering.

It is not easy to differentiate between new iPhone users and people just upgrading but seeing as generally people tend to stick to either Android or iOS then we can do some simple calculations: 1.9 billon – 225 million = 1.675 billion. That’s 1.675 billion iPhones that are potentially unwanted. There is a huge resale market for iPhones so let’s say 10% of those original iPhones have been scrapped, that’s 167 million! Fortunately, Apple jump in here with their Reuse and Recycling Program and are also well on their way to making the iPhone carbon neutral by 2030 with the percentage of recycled and recyclable materials used increasing with each new model.

This is all great, but what about obtaining the materials in the first place? I have written before about the use of child labour in artisanal mines on the African continent, a 2024 study by Infyos, the UK based artificial intelligence risk assessment specialist, found that “75% of lithium-ion battery suppliers employ supply chains identified using one or more companies facing allegations of severe human rights abuses”, primarily against children. There is also the fact that energy is used to manufacture and recycle products, and with 82% of the worlds energy still coming from fossil fuels it’s difficult to claim that anything made or recycled doesn’t have a negative impact on the environment, however you try to dress is up using linguistic gymnastics employed by PR departments.

Child labour in artisanal mine

The irony about all of this is that Gen Z are the most vocal when it comes to environmental and social responsibility issues but are the biggest consumers of new tech with 45% of iPhone users being under the age of 24, with 13% of them upgrading their iPhones every year compared with 10% of all other age-groups.

Whilst companies like Apple are doing their best to reduce their carbon footprint their needs to be a C-change in the attitude of consumers away from feeling virtuous when we buy from a carbon-friendly company like Apple, towards reconsidering our consumption completely; from do I really want to do I really need that new phone, laptop, tablet, TV etc. Only then will we see a marked change in the impact society has on the environment.

The content and opinions shared herewith are solely that of the author and not of Sumo Technologies Ltd.