Product obsolescence: is a decline in the value of equipment or of a product brought about by an introduction of new technology or by changes in demand. Obsolescence occurs when a product, is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order. Obsolescence frequently occurs because a replacement has become available that is superior in one or more aspects.
Technical obsolescence: may occur when a new product or technology is superior than the old technology, and it becomes preferred to utilize the new technology in place of the old like CD-ROM over floppy disk which in turn were overtaken by USB based pen drives and later by portable hard disks which can store Upto a tera byte of memory. Similarly DVD become popular and replaced VHS technology. DVD allowed for greater quality and multimedia functions
Functional obsolescence: a product may become functionally obsolete when they do not function in the manner that they did when they were created. This may be due to natural wear, or due to some intervening act. For example, if a new mobile phone technology is adopted, and there is no longer a provider who provides service based on the old technology, any mobile phone using that technology would be rendered obsolete due to the inability to access service.
Planned obsolescence: Sometimes marketers deliberately introduce obsolescence into their product strategy, with the objective of generating long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases. This might lead to manufacturing a product which is deliberately designed to wear out within five years of its purchase, pushing consumers to replace it within five years.
Style obsolescence: When a product is no longer desirable because it has gone out of the popular fashion, its style is obsolete. One example is "acid-wash" jeans. Although the acid-wash jeans may still be perfectly functional, it is no longer desirable because style trends have moved away from the acid-wash look.
Because of the "fashion cycle", stylistically obsolete products may eventually regain popularity and cease to be obsolete. A current example is puffed sleeves worn by women that were very popular which were popular in the 1970s and the 80s, became stylistically obsolete in the 1900s, and returned to popularity in the recent times.
Postponement obsolescence: Postponement obsolescence refers to a situation where technological improvements are not introduced to a product, even though they could be. One possible example is when an auto manufacturer develops a new feature for its line of cars, but chooses not to implement that feature in the production of the least expensive car in its product line. For example it is quite possible for a car manufacturer to introduce auto gear transmission in the low price car segment. But the car maker would not do so as auto gear transmission is perceived as a feature that is available only in the luxury and the high price car segment.
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