OCR GCSE Computer Science Computer systems (01), June 2025: Question 3

💡 Level Breakdown (How Marks Are Won)

• Band 3 (6–8 marks): Balanced discussion covering both company and customers, including both ethical and environmental issues, weighing benefits and drawbacks with expanded, justified points. Well-structured and logical.
• Band 2 (3–5 marks): Covers either company or customer well, or touches on both shallowly. Covers ethical and/or environmental factors, but some points lack depth or real explanation.
• Band 1 (1–2 marks): Brief, isolated bullet-point style thoughts, simple assertions without explanation (e.g. "it causes pollution"), or ignores either ethics or the environment completely.

🧠 Exam Technique: The "2 × 2 × 2" Rule

The asterisk (*) means your quality of written communication is assessed. To hit Band 3 reliably, make sure your essay addresses:

• Stakeholders: Company AND Customers
• Themes: Ethical issues AND Environmental issues
• Balance: Benefits AND Drawbacks

Organise your answer into 3 or 4 clear paragraphs using linking words like "Consequently", "On the other hand", and "As a result".

Theme 1 Ethical Issues

• Planned Obsolescence: Forcing customers to replace hardware by stopping software updates can be seen as deceitful, manipulating users into spending money unnecessarily.
• Security Vulnerabilities: Without software updates, older tablets will not receive security patches, putting customer data at risk of malware and hacking.
• Fairness & Pricing: If the company reduces manufacturing costs, will savings be passed to customers, or will prices remain high to increase profit margins?
• Accessibility / Digital Divide: Cheaper manufacturing might reduce retail prices, allowing lower-income families to afford a tablet.

Theme 2 Environmental Issues

• E-Waste (Electronic Waste): Customers replacing devices more frequently causes rapid accumulation of e-waste in landfills, releasing toxic heavy metals (e.g. lead, mercury, cadmium).
• Depletion of Finite Resources: Higher tablet production uses up precious and rare-earth materials (e.g. lithium, copper, gold) that require damaging mining practices.
• Carbon Footprint: Manufacturing and shipping more units dramatically increases factory emissions and overall energy consumption.
• Mitigation / Recycling: Discarded tablets could be recycled for parts, or older functioning tablets could be refurbished and donated to reduce digital exclusion.

✅ Impact on the Company

• Benefits:
  • Cheaper production costs mean higher profit margins per tablet sold.
  • Ending software support forces faster upgrade cycles, increasing ongoing sales volume and revenue.
  • Less money spent on software developers maintaining legacy code.
• Drawbacks:
  • Risk of brand damage: customers feeling exploited may switch to competitors offering longer software support.
  • Lower manufacturing costs may lead to inferior build quality, leading to high return rates and poor reviews.

✅ Impact on the Customer

• Benefits:
  • If the company passes on manufacturing savings, customers enjoy a lower initial purchase price.
  • Customers who upgrade frequently gain access to newer hardware features and faster processors.
• Drawbacks:
  • Financial strain: customers must spend money repeatedly to stay up to date.
  • Frustration and wasted time transferring data, reinstalling apps, and setting up new tablets frequently.
  • Unsupported devices become sluggish, bug-ridden, and insecure.

🧠 High-Scoring Essay Plan (4 Paragraphs)

1. Paragraph 1 (Company Benefits & Ethics): Discuss reduced costs leading to higher profits and recurring revenue from frequent upgrades. Weigh against the ethical issue of planned obsolescence and potential loss of brand trust.
2. Paragraph 2 (Customer Impact): Explain how lower prices might help new buyers, but existing customers face higher long-term costs, data security risks without patches, and the inconvenience of device replacement.
3. Paragraph 3 (Environmental Impact): Explain how rapid replacement cycles cause a huge surge in toxic e-waste and raw material extraction. Contrast this with recycling schemes or donating older tablets.
4. Paragraph 4 (Conclusion / Weighing Up): Summarise whether the decision is justifiable: while profitable in the short term, it harms the environment and risks alienating customers in the long run.

❌ Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Only talking about one stakeholder: Focusing entirely on how angry customers will be, while forgetting to discuss the business benefits (profits, sales) for the company.
• Leaving out the environment: Spending the entire answer discussing money and ethics, ignoring e-waste and raw material usage.
• Unsubstantiated bullet points: Writing a list of short phrases. Level-marked questions require continuous prose and explained consequences.
• Confusing software updates with hardware faults: Stopping updates does not make the tablet explode or stop turning on immediately; it means apps become incompatible and security flaws remain unpatched.