Is it ethical for a tech company to upgrade products more than once per year?

[gmanist1000]

They can do what they want.

 

[hkfan24]

you underestimate the number of adults who are infantile

+1. Probably one of the best posts I've read on here in a while.

 

[Zwhaler]

A company releasing upgraded products more than once a year has nothing to do with ethics. More appropriate is the question of whether it is ethical for more and more natural resources to go from the ground to the garbage bin as a result of rapidly changing technology such as we are discussing here from iPad 3 to iPad 4, to which I would respond no it is not ethical.

 

[thermal]

The poll was initially meant as satire.

I thought this would be evident by the absurdity of the question. However, it turns out 21% of MacRumors members Do finding Apple's upgrade cycle unethical...

 

[Brien]

When you think about it, it's logical Apple wanted rid of the 30pin connector ASAP. So now it's done.

The good news is all those accessories & battery packs with the 30pin should be going on sale soon!

They still sell the iPad 2, though, which makes you scratch your head.

 

[blueroom]

They still sell the iPad 2, though, which makes you scratch your head.

They have to do something with the existing stock, same with the iPad 3 refurbished.

Since neither are still (or gone soon enough) on Apple retail store shelves there is no connector confusion.

 

[Freyqq]

No. It is not fair for products to become obsolete within a year. You would not see other reputable tech companies screwing their loyal customers in this way.

The iPad 3 is not obsolete. It runs every feature of ios 6.

The only differences between the iPad 3 and iPad 4 are:

1. Lightning connection - not really an upgrade or downgrade, so meh
2. better front camera - a nice upgrade, but definitely not a huge deal
3. faster processor - the biggest improvement by far, but again it's not like the ipad 3 was slow to begin with
4. arguably better thermals - nice, but it only got hot during the heaviest of usage

verdict: the iPad 4 is obviously better, but the iPad 3 is no slouch.

 

[Fed]

So it's got to this now. Wow.

 

[cdmoore74]

I expected this from Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Intel, AMD and others but not from Apple. First time I seen a bread and butter Apple product getting updated so soon from Apple. Maybe the 7" tablets really did hurt Apple and they needed to get new product on the market before Christmas. Apple knows that people will sell their kidneys to have the latest and greatest so they're taking advantage of this fact.

 

[Carlanga]

Simple answer:
Most companies upgrade products more than 4 times a year. In reality, apple has one of the longest product cycles of the computer industry.