The fight to fix it

THE CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION estimated that residents of the United States bought 183 million smartphones in 2016. There are already as many TVs in this country as there are people. That's a lot of electronics, and these numbers are just going up. On balance, all this technology is probably making our lives better. But there's a downside, too: The stuff often malfunctions. Unlike the 30-year-old mixer on your kitchen counter that refuses to die, new technology- especially the smart devices with fancy, embedded electronics-breaks more quickly. That trend, confirmed by a recent study by the German government, applies not just to delicate products like smartphones and tablets but also to equipment we would expect to last for a long time- like televisions, washing machines, and even tractors.