A Reponse...
To the8thark,
I thank you for your well reasoned response, despite the unnecessary insults. Anyways, it does not matter who I am, all that matters is the quality of my arguments. From you response I gather that you agree with me on my intermediate point, the Ipad store is reflective of Apple's use of a marketing scheme.
Now, the question is, should we, as Apple's customers, accept or reject the marketing scheme?
You basically ague that fast updates are the way that IT industry works, so we ought to just accept it. Second, you argue that relatively high resale value of Mac products ensures that purchasers will suffer minimum damage.
I first handle your first argument. You are indeed right that the way of the IT industry has been rapid updates and new product releases. However, I believe that that phenomenon is simply reflective of the growth curves or new industries. When a whole new industry comes into existence, the rate of technological development and new products is incredibly high; however, as the industry matures, the rate of growth generally slows. I think we see this in the commercial airline industry, where commercial aircraft developed rapidly for a few decades, but now new products are seldom heard of. Of course this is a general model, and I am no economist, and it does not apply to all industries, but I think it is generally true - at some point we just stop coming up with tons of new ideas within a given industry. So, as for personal computing, while it is far for a climax, has at least slowed down since the rapid development of the 90's. In that decade, I remember swapping in for a new computer every year, at least, simply because it became incompatible with essential software and hardware. However, nowadays I have been using the same computer for 5 years, and I am not at all limited in my functionality.
So, what does this macro trend have to do with my argument. Well, I feel there is nothing wrong with the rapid introduction of new products for technological development reasons, because the products are in fact 'new,' not just products that were deliberately held back for marketing reasons. In fact, the rapid release of products that we witnessed in the 90's should not even be called marketing, it should just be called 'industry development.'
Now what Apple just did with the Ipad 2 has nothing to do with 'industry development.' It is pure marketing. In fact, it is also 'anti-industry development,' because the resources that they put into this marketing campaign could have been put into actually developing 'new' products. In fact, Apple is holding back technological development.
As for the resale value of Apple products, this could perhaps justify Apple feeling a little less guilty about cheating consumers and consumers less stupid about buying a product that it outdated before they even buy it, but only a little it, and I don't buy it. I would never buy a Ipad1 now that the Ipad2 has been released, why would I do that, accept for collector purposes?
As for your comment on updates:
You cannot skip directly from V1 to V3 in all cases. The prime example is a Tiger user who wants to update to SL. Although this technically possible (I did it) Apple legally prohibits this type of update, and instead punishes Tiger users who did not originally purchase Leopard by only offering SL through a $169 package, far more than he $29 update from Leopard to SL. So, no, Apple does not like users to "miss" updates.
As for you general opinion on Mac, I am in general agreement. The first computer my family ever used was a mac, as was the first computer I ever used. I did go to PC in the dark days of Mac, but came back and have been a generally happy user for over 10 years now. I use a PC at work because they require me too, and I do not even know how I cope with it. I always urge my friends to dump their PC and buy a Mac. So, you need not question my loyalty to the brand. It is the most innovative and creative company in the U.S. today and they certainly deserve our applause. However, that does not mean we cannot call them out on their faults. In fact, it is our duty as consumers to do so. Consumers walked away from Mac once, and it forced them to come up with better products, which eventually brought them back to glory. If we want Mac to continue on in glory and create products that we love, we need to give Mac tough love, and not just by anything that has a bitten apple on it.
If you call this a rant, then a real rant must be really scary.
Please, no more insults, or this discussion will have to cease