Consumer survey: product lifetimes and durability of electronics

This database presents a set of consumer reports (1037) on their electronics use and ownership experience focusing on lifetimes and durability of such.

It comes as a result of online survey conducted using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Consumers (80% of whom come from the USA) were asked to report on the dates of purchase (obtaining) and disposal of different electronics types. This allowed estimating possession lifetimes of such products and their durability (time until first failure). Additionally, data on repair, hibernation, brands and models, geographical, location, and prices was collected.

Data presented in this repository is rather an initial (cleaned and aggregated) set of consumer reports, hence, is open for farther interpretation depending on practitioner's needs.

Data fields for each consumer report that describes a single device ownership:
- 4 digit UNU product code (e.g. "0303" for a 'Laptop computer')
- LTrecords: set of consumer reports collected for this specific product category
- LS: Time from the date when the product was obtained until its first failure (equals to LT if never failed)
- LT: Time from the date when the product was obtained until its disposal
- LTphase: Type of ownership (LT1, LT2, LT3, LT4) depending if the product is new, second-hand, etc. Publication describing this classification is being prepared for publishing at the moment.
- brand: brand of the reported device
- chng_user: Failed/repaired due to user related cause
- in_condition: The condition of the device at the moment of obtaining it: new, used, etc
- in_month: Month when obtained
- in_year: Year when obtained
- model: Model of the reported device
- niu_months: Hibernation period (months not being used prior to disposal)
- out_condition: The condition of the device at the moment of disposing it: used, failed, etc
- out_inpossession: Still in possession? If yes, then LT defines time in possession, otherwise LT defines possession lifetime
- out_inuse: Still in use?
- out_method: The way how was disposed of, e.g. discarded, passed over, recycled, etc
- price_range: Reported price category out of three
- report_date: Date of the report collection

本数据库收录了1037份消费者报告，聚焦于各类电子产品的使用与持有体验，核心关注其使用寿命与耐用性表现。
该数据集源自基于亚马逊机械 Turk（Amazon Mechanical Turk）平台开展的线上调查，其中80%的受访者来自美国。调查要求消费者上报不同电子产品的购置与处置日期，借此可估算产品的持有寿命及其耐用性（即首次故障前的累计使用时长）。此外，数据集还涵盖了维修记录、闲置状态、品牌型号、地理位置与价格区间等相关信息。
本仓库所发布的数据为经过初步清洗与聚合的消费者报告数据集，可根据从业者的实际研究或应用需求进行进一步解读与拓展分析。
针对每份描述单台设备持有情况的消费者报告，其包含的数据字段如下：
- 4位UNU产品代码（UNU product code，例如代表「笔记本电脑」的「0303」）
- LTrecords：对应特定产品类别的消费者报告集合
- LS：产品自购置之日起至首次故障的时长（若设备从未发生故障，则该字段取值与LT一致）
- LT：产品自购置之日起至处置的时长
- LTphase：产品持有类型（分为LT1、LT2、LT3、LT4四类），依据产品为全新、二手等状态划分，相关分类标准的学术论文目前正处于筹备发表阶段
- brand：受访设备的品牌
- chng_user：设备因用户相关原因导致故障或需要维修
- in_condition：设备购置时的状态，例如全新、二手等
- in_month：设备购置的月份
- in_year：设备购置的年份
- model：受访设备的型号
- niu_months：闲置时长（设备被处置前未被使用的月数）
- out_condition：设备处置时的状态，例如已使用、故障等
- out_inpossession：是否仍持有该设备？若是，则LT代表当前持有时长；若否，则LT代表产品总持有寿命
- out_inuse：是否仍在使用该设备？
- out_method：设备的处置方式，例如丢弃、转赠、回收等
- price_range：受访者上报的价格区间（共分为三类）
- report_date：报告的收集日期