Spotify’s Car Thing was not a great commercial success. It’s even the opposite, because five months after its marketing, its production was stopped. Spotify decides to put the final nail on the coffin by transforming it into electronic waste.
In 2021, Spotify launched a hardware product, the “car thing” or, Car Thing in the language of Shakespeare. Barely a year after its launch, the device was discontinued. From now on, it will turn into a useless brick.
This is what we learn The Verge. Several users received an email indicating that the device would stop working as of December 9, 2024.
In an FAQ on its site, the Swedish giant writes:
“We are discontinuing Car Thing as part of our ongoing efforts to streamline our product offerings. We understand this may be disappointing, but this decision allows us to focus on developing new features and improvements that will ultimately provide a better experience for all Spotify users. »
A questionable decision
After putting the music lyrics behind a paywall, the firm specializing in music streaming is once again making a questionable decision. Certainly, his Car Thing did not meet with the expected success. But turning a functional device into electronic waste is really not justifiable.
In addition, Spotify could have offered a refund or a few months of subscriptions to help the pill pass, but this is not the case.
This news revives the topic of product updates. If in the world of smartphones, this subject has ended up being taken seriously, to the point that now all manufacturers detail how many years they intend to supply them, the rest of the industry is far from it. For example, try to find out how many years your TV will be updated. The information is far from transparent on this subject.
In the case of the Car Thing, the problem goes even further. Because a television that is no longer updated fortunately continues to work. But when a manufacturer updates its device one last time so that it stops working, it looks like total sabotage.
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