1) Apple has NEVER had a problem with pissing people off.
2) How did you determine that the 4 release is now the standard release cycle? I see the primary drivers for the recent releases as responding to growing competition from the 7" tablet makers by getting whatever they could out the door (Mini) and getting the new Lightning connector standard device out there with the 4 (while getting the CPU up to a standard to face new competition from Nexus 10). Maybe release dates will change but there's no proof of that.
3) Maybe Apple is realizing that the smaller form factor market is where it's at and it CAN be flagship model. I've always felt my standard iPads were too big & bulky and wanted something closer to the size of my wife's Kindle. I had hopes for the iPad Mini but couldn't accept the compromises they made to jam it out the door. - So, I bought a Kindle Fire HD and will buy a Mini when they put a retina display in it.
Apple has never had a problem pissing off trolls, but not valued customers. You can piss customers off once, but not again, and they're not so stupid to do it again 6 months after this time with the iPad 4.
The iPad has been on a yearly release cycle since gen 1, as of course you know. As you probably also know (forgive if "I'm teaching granny to suck eggs" - an apt British saying) Apple likes simplicity and part of that simplicity comes from infrequent (compared to lots of other manufacturers) refresh cycles. Keeping it simple keeps the costs down (in *all* departments) and that keeps the margins up. If they were keeping to a yearly refresh cycle for the iPad 4, meaning a Spring refresh would be coming, the update they just made for it would have been *silent*. You don't make a splash of any size for a product you just released (relative to their refresh cycles), or for a product you're about to release a refresh for in a couple of months. Holiday iPad gifts previously have been outdated or rendered obsolete in a mere 3 months after receiving the gift - that's a bad thing, and with a refresh cycle that is yearly and just prior to holidays, that solves a big problem.
Finally, the smaller form factor is great, I will agree this, and I will most likely not again own a full sized iPad for a long time (I've got an MBA and a mini, what's the need?), but Apple had no idea before launch that I'd feel this way, or you or others - in fact, you haven't bought their gen 1 yet, so they have no information on your preference! If as the article says, they have been planning this from before the launch, that is something I will not agree - that would mean they had decided that their beloved and highly profitable iPad (full sized) was not ideal and they needed a product to come along and make them more money, so they found a product that made them less money and decided before launching it that it was the new greatest thing, without any real feedback. I don't buy that at all, it makes no sense. They may have *hoped* it would do well, but for the foreseeable future the full sized iPad will remain the premium device with the premium price tag, and they will both be refreshed in the Autumn next year.
You can disagree, that's fine and cool, and the referee will be time, when we will all see. Exciting times, regardless, I say!
