The thing with 3 year planned obsolescence is: American industries have been there, done that. Once upon a time when Detroit was king, they decided to have planned obsolescence of their cars. The idea was, why would anyone want to drive around in a beat up 100,000 mile car anyway? You were supposed to change your car every 3-4 years. This worked great until other countries (cough, Japan, cough) entered the market, and people realized that yes, sometimes you do need to drive around a beat up Honda Civic for 10 years. And the same arguments were made about Japanese cars: they were cheap, why would anyone want to ride around in those little turds? You see where the car industry is today.
Apple seems to have decided for the consumer for three-to-four years planned obsolescence across the board. AppleCare expires in 3 years. Software upgrades no longer available for models of phones/ipads more than three years. Computers like MBA's with 4 GB RAM that they know will be about useless in say, 3 years. And for those who say Cupertino can't become the new Detroit, just look at what happened to HP. Laying off entire 10k+ people.
Making crappy products WILL catch up with a business. Yes, even a business as "premium" as Apple.