Have you found your year-old iPhone slowing down? Have you been forced to buy a brand-new phone to replace a cracked screen? Does your friend’s new super-thin iPhone look appetizing despite the lack of a headphone jack?

You may be a victim of planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence refers to a policy of designing products with limited durability, usefulness, or style to ensure prolonged customer dependency. Though the phrase was not coined until 1932, planned obsolescence can be traced back to 1924 in the American automobile industry. In an attempt to outsell competitors, General Motors decided to employ an annual-redesign strategy—covering their existing technology with a new coat to convince consumers to buy a new car every year.

In modern times, planned obsolescence is a staple of many industries and companies, but none more infamous than Apple. With their sleek, tamper-proof cases and endless waves of new iterations, Apple devices are the pinnacle example of products that are made to die. There are a few different ways Apple keeps customers coming back for more:

Durability

We all know how famously indestructible old Nokia phones were. They could survive sledgehammers, let alone a waist-height fall. However, even a light toss is enough to shatter an iPhone screen, or even render the electronics useless. Chances are you know more than one person with a cracked phone screen. This wouldn’t be such an issue if it weren’t for the next method:

Preventing Repairs

If your iPhone display breaks or its battery dies, the only viable road to take is buying a new phone. Apple uses tamper-proof screws to discourage users from repairing their own devices. They also charge small fortunes to repair broken hardware, and refuse customers access to diagnostic tools—tools that even Apple refuses to use to fix hardware, instead suggesting the user purchase a brand-new device (as detailed in the first ten minutes of this video). Its evil, but its genius: remove those who offer affordable repairs and the consumer is forced to buy a new device or spend the same amount of money on a repair.

Software

I remember when my first iPhone became more useful as a hand-warmer than as a computing device. This is due to the way Apple handles software updates. When a new iPhone is released, Apple designs each new operating system (OS) specifically for that phone.

The increased processing power and storage space required to handle each update becomes too much for old devices, and—you guessed it—all you can do is buy the new iPhone. If you don’t, many of your favorite apps will become unusable. Each new OS update requires third-party developers to update their apps so they are compatible with the new OS: rendering them useless on older devices.

Style

Apple’s planned obsolescence policy took some inspiration from General Motors’: the same product in a new package nets you even more money. New colors and thinner devices allow Apple to resell what is largely the same product by adding a higher number on the end. As Digital Trends puts it, “You don’t really need the iPhone 6s, but you’re going to want it anyway.”

Perhaps the most ingenious of Apple’s arbitrary redesigns were the switch from the industry-standard USB-C charging port to Apple’s Lightning connector and the removal of the headphone jack. Not only do these changes create an illusion of improvement, they also force the consumer to purchase new cables, adapters, and headphones all from Apple. How convenient.

Unfortunately, planned obsolescence has more adverse consequences than making you buy a new phone. Designing electronics to be constantly replaced wastes natural resources and increases waste and pollution. Even more unfortunately, while companies like Apple continue to profit from it, planned obsolescence is here to stay.

But there must be something we can do, right? As with many issues pertaining to large consumer goods companies, the answer is government rules and regulation. As explained in the previously-linked video, laws in the automobile industry prevent dealers from keeping diagnostic and repair tools from third-party servicers. If those same laws made their way into the consumer electronics industry, there would be higher pressure on companies like Apple to create higher-quality products.

And, as always, we can vote with our wallets. With more and more companies like Samsung and Google releasing their own alternatives to the iPhone, it is becoming easier than ever to deliberately spend your money. And who knows? You might find a new favorite.