The increasingly rapid product refresh cycle with Apple is a real "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for Apple, IMHO.
If they sit on their hands and wait a year between refresh cycles with the iPad/iPhone like they used to people will decry the "slow pace" and complain that Apple is asleep at the switch and is going to get "destroyed by the competition".
If they refresh more frequently, anyone who bought the previous model (or hell, recently, even 2 previous models) will bitch and moan because they suddenly don't have the latest and greatest.
Here's a thought - DON'T UPGRADE. Really, the 5S (if that's even what comes out) will be an incremental upgrade from the 5, much the same as the 4S was to the 4.
Just wait for the 6 instead....sit back, relax, and don't get your boxers in a twist.
Incremental upgrades should be about attracting NEW customers to a phone platform, or finally getting people who are a few versions behind to finally move up. They shouldn't be about the "OMG MY IPHONE5 IS OBSOLETE, OMG MUST UPGRADE NOW!" fanaticism.
This whole competition thing is really juvenile (and very tribal) if you ask me, people deriving some sort of personal value from the status of a product company they have "aligned with?"
Couldn't agree more. The Android crowd seems particularly vehemently proud of their ability to bash anything Apple, to the point of immaturity. They're less concerned with their own platform versus the competition, mainly, Apple.