now wait a sec. I am no fan boy of apple. In fact I absolutely hate the apple I am forced to use at church (it was a refurbish... and it was not properly fixed! Even after several returns). However, I know several iphone ipad and mac users. Lets give them some credit, they are all painfully aware that their computer or handheld will be out of date in 6mo or less, but that is why they know what features they want, and then jump in when that feature is released. It is usually every 2 generations/years for the phone and 4 generations/years for the computer which is similar to the PC and smartphone users that I know.
Personally I have a blood pact with my phone. First phone lasted 4 years and I only got rid of it because ATT was no longer supporting the old analogue signal in my area. The next one was 7 years, and the current one is a refresh of the last one while I wait for a decent Android or HTC to come out (love the phones, but there is no way I am charging it every single day! It just defeats the whole idea of a 'mobile phone'!). For the computer I do a major upgrade every 2 years. First the core system (CPU, mobo, ram), and then the 'accessories' (graphics, OS, case, HDD, etc). It keeps me on the upper end of the spectrum, but without breaking the bank. The best part is that I constantly feel like I am getting fresh performance, while my mac friends are tied to the same system for 4 years, always complaining that it is getting slower and slower as the updates pile on, and new hardware makes them obsolete. Sure, my system is not quite as fast as theirs when they get it out of the box, but I generally pass them up in about 6 months, so I'll let them gloat for 6mo while I get 3.5 years of them leaving me alone.