Yes - but not in the way you describe. First of all, planned obsolescence refers broadly to intentionally designing a product so that it will have an artificially short life-span, which can include less-nefarious tactics such as using cheaper manufacturing processes that make repairs more difficult.
What you are referring to is programmed obsolescence: essentially, putting a time-bomb inside of a product. This is a subset of planned obsolescence.
The textbook example of programmed obsolescence is ink cartridges: the Wikipedia article covers the basics. Some ink cartridges have timers or page counters. In other cases, the driver software on the user's PC counts the pages and issues a warning when the ink is almost out - except often the cartridges may still have significant capacity left.
This business model "works" because inkjet printer manufacturers have created a monopoly on the cartridges. Once you buy the printer from them, you need to buy the ink from them too.*
Such a model would not be effective in your laptop example, for two reasons:
- Company A cannot guarantee that you will buy your next laptop from them once their kill-switch is engaged.
- Company A's competitor, Company B, could easily play the long game and increase their market share by building the same laptop, saving money by leaving out the kill-switch, and selling it for a little bit less. As word got out that Company A's laptop didn't last as long, consumers would start buying more from Company B.
*This has led to an interesting market effect, where competing printer manufacturers can only gain market share by lowering their up-front costs: Amazon currently lists 941 inkjet printers available for less than $100 USD.
