Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
And this an unfortunate problem with the junk that is made today. Companies are not blind (no pun intended) to the fact that the LED bulb could easily last 20 years, and they knew that if they made the brackets good and strong that a person would not have to buy a light for about 20 years, which means sales would be dismal, so they had to create failure in order to boost sales, and brackets are a way in which most manufactures are doing it. Don't say that's not true, because look at tail light brackets back 15 years ago just prior to LED's, they were much better then today's, so the engineering to make better brackets is there but they choose not to make them like that.
I'm not sure this is about "Planned obsolescence". More than likely it is just over-sight, budget constraints or just out-right poor design. Not all the Chinese stuff is total junk. Depends on what you're buying. If you buy a $5 bike light you can't expect quality akin to what's used on the space shuttle. If it lasts a season you got your money's worth.
All said I have lots of Chinese made lights sitting on my computer desk. Most of these use the plastic O-ring mounts. They could use better mounts but than they would have to charge more. So far I've not had any fail but the heavier the lamp the more problems with the O-ring mounts. Personally I'm ecstatic that I can buy a bike light for < $40 that not only can supply the amount of light I need to mountain bike but will actually do so very well. Let's face it, if all the Chinese made stuff was junk no one would buy it and then we'd have nothing to talk about.