I partially agree, but I'm a little less paranoid than you seem to be. I think Apple's change in design has primarly to do with an obsessive-compulsive desire to have a tiny and elegant form factor. Secondarily, it has to do with providing enough benefits (sync of all devices, now that people are using so many devices) to force people into the Apple eco-system, which also makes the cost and difficulty of switching to a different eco-system and therfore a competitor's devices, very high.
My problem with Apple has more to do with the architecture/form factor that forces high-cost, non-replaceable SSDs over low-cost HDs, and doesn't permit memory upgrades or battery replacement. (I'm also personally not happy about the elimination of the internal optical drive, but I can understand why they did it, although if I were paranoid, I'd say that was also to force people to buy movies via iTunes rather than use DVD media.) It isn't new functionality that will force machine replacements in short cycles, but the fact that the new designs don't permit one to upgrade the machine, although I don't think the competition will necessarily follow suit. (If I were the competition, I would market the non-upgradability and non-repairablity of Apple devices against them.)
One thing that may come back to bite these companies that are pushing everyone to the "Cloud" is that the ISPs are going to end most of their fixed-price "all-you-can-eat" data plans, substantially raising costs for people who keep everything in the Cloud.
Also, I think many corporations are a lot less willing to have their data stored in the Cloud, due to security concerns. And the more we hear of security breaches, the more IT departments are going to push to keep things local, whether that means local servers or keeping data on laptops. I currently consult for two corporations, one very large and one relatively small, and they are so paranoid that they put tremendous restrictions on what you can access, partially for security reasons and partially because they don't want employees wasting time. I noticed yesterday at one of them that when I was logged onto their wireless network, I couldn't access Facebook or Linked-In using my personal non-company issued phone. At another company, their wired guest network severely limits access, even when they provide guest log-ins. When vendors come to demonstrate their software and the demos are in the "Cloud", we always have tech issues because many functions can't work due to the restrictions. These are not companies who are going to trust the Cloud.
. I feel you man, my XBOX broke, and we had 3 XBOX 360s at one point that were from people who gave them to my brother since they were broken. My friend got a new XBOX 360 that came with 2 games, neither of which worked.
