Fine with me. Competition is good, faster development cycles are good. The only people who are going to complain are those who must have the latest version at all cost. While I 'get' the desire to have the latest and greatest, all it does, besides fill Apple's coffers, is perpetuate our throwaway society.
My iPad2 and iPhone4S are still perfectly functional. I'll probably replace them either when iOS support disappears or their batteries die.
As someone who just went from iPhone4 & iPad2 to iPhone5 & iPad4... trust me, you aren't missing much. When the new smell wears off, there isn't a world of difference despite what Apple, the reviewers and blogger fanatics say. I'm not a casual user either. I'm a photographer who has used the iPhone/iPad combo exclusively for producing print and travel content
HERE and
HERE so I tend to push these mobile devices to the limit. I've also got a fairly keen eye for detail and color. The retina is better, but marginally so. And I would argue that the margin of gain is not worth the loss in battery life, extra weight, or the very long charge times.
I also kept the iPad2 for the length of the return period of the iPad4 so I compared both extensively. The ONLY reason I kept the iPad4 was because I wanted to have a screen I could photograph for higher resolution versions of artwork created by apps that don't export hi-resolution. If you photograph the iPad2 and iPad4 screens and enlarge them in Photoshop, there's a world of difference. But to the naked eye... marginal like I said. Other than that, I would have returned the iPad4 and kept the iPad2 until it died or was a victim of Apple's planned hardware obsolescence via IOS update.
You are certainly better off sitting out the current crop and waiting until your current product dies or is made obsolete by Apple's IOS updates.
ps. no need to dump if the batteries die. There's a cottage industry that does nothing other than install new batteries in these products for you. And, it's not as expensive as you might think. Just make sure they stand behind their work. We have a battery chain here in the US called "Batteries Plus". I took my iPhone 4 to them for a battery replacement. The kid was in a hurry and forgot to get me to sign their normal waiver. Well, he pulled the battery out too quick and damaged the circuit board to the point it was deemed unrepairable. Luckily, since I hadn't signed a waiver... the shop had to pay me for the refurb value of my phone. I would not go back to a place that has any such waiver requirement, but there are many others that do the same thing for a reasonable price and stand behind their work.
