At this point I think it's inevitable that some appliance features will require a subscription (e.g. your fridge's ice-maker is an additional $5/month).
It's easy to say "just don't buy it", but a few of us not buying it will not swing the balance sheets when the extra profit is so significant for the companies pulling this shit.
It seems inevitable that these types of subscriptions will slowly take over more and more areas of end consumer lives, until there's such a fatigue and hard push-back on subscriptions that it becomes profitable to create companies that sell products outright just to compete with subscription models.
As-is, launching a company that will compete with the subscription models is difficult. You will have a harder time finding investors (who will see the numbers and ask, "are you crazy?"). You basically have to do this, alongside others, just because you believe it's the right thing to do.
And then you have to not get bought up by a company that will introduce this model.
I'm not saying all subscription models are bad; I believe they're warranted or a good trade-off in a lot of cases, especially in hosted software. But knowing how significant a difference it makes, I just don't see this turning out well for consumers, even if we want to organize boycotts.
So, how do we speedrun to the part where "you own your product" competition exists and thrives?
A related issue is the increasing possiblity of devices being effectively bricked because some cloud service or online system has ceased support. Could there be a niche for a company selling improved after-market firmware for other companies' devices?
For washers and dryers: Speed Queen makes some of the most reliable washers and dryers I've ever seen. You'll pay an arm and a leg for them, but they're known to last for between double to quadruple the length of the warranty. My family recently had to purchase a new washing machine, and the Speed Queen display at the store showed off the drum unit designs for Speed Queen vs their competition; Speed Queen uses a single giant gear made of stainless steel, whereas other brands use super complex plastic gearboxes.
For refrigerators: it's really a toss-up; I was able to find plenty of high predicted reliability models without Wi-Fi on Consumer Reports' website.
For other appliances: I haven't had to look for any other appliances as of late, but I always look to CR first because I personally trust their ratings. Your milage may vary.
So many products these days break down within a few years :/
My wolf stove is 10 years old. Will last 10 more. But it cost like 16k. Could have bought 12-16 normal stoves for that price.
I know it will last both because mine has made it 10 already, and I know many people with even older stoves.
Obviously that's just anecdotal, but was a pleasant surprise.
This feels like businesses are trying to force everyone in the debt trap that keeps the poor where they are. Having to pay a monthly subscription for basic functionality isn't _that_ different from being in debt. But instead of floating consumers a loan, these companies are selling an item that selectively breaks if they miss a payment.
And part of it, I believe, is inflation. I.e. I believe inflation is vastly undercounted and underreported, because a good chunk of it hides in "shrinkflation", decrease of manufacturing quality, lower-quality components, replacing customer service with "AI" chatbots and recently also voicebots, more ads and upsells, and - of course - extra subscriptions tacked on to everything.
Then the whole aspect of data mining, how long (if not already) will these devices report back your usage and activity that is sold on.