As the article says, it's all about model differentiation. The 4S is a fine upgrade, but it would be far less interesting to current iPhone 4 owners if Siri wasn't a 4S exclusive.
Apple can plaster a lot of environment-blah blah on their website, but they (but also most Android vendors) are the anti-thesis of sustainability. Encouraging people to upgrade frequently, and quickly deprecating old models. E.g. my girlfriend's 3G is in a fine state hardware-wise, will probably function well for a few more years, but there are no more security updates.
Very good comment. Why then doesn't Apple make Siri an expensive app to compensate? My iPhone4 batteries will be dead in one year anyway, so I'll have to get a new one. In the meantime, I'd like to get Siri for even 50$ or more. And on my iPad 2 also.
Apple needs to be more sustainable. That may mean increase their prices, fine, but that would be better for the environment.
The differentiation is between the various models available (3GS, 4 and 4S, all on sale), not the latest one and everything else.
If they stick with the current pattern the line up when the 5 launches will likely be 4, 4S and 5. Apple will want clear reasons why you'd choose each one over the model below it. Putting Siri on everything would undermine that - you still want a reason for people to spend a little more on the 4S rather than settling for the 4.
Apple customers are responsible for environment at least as much as Apple or more. If you don't like how Apple treats environment, you don't buy their products. If you think it's not good for environment to upgrade every year or two, don't buy new phone. Apple's care of environment does not matter if you decide to buy another device. They can only minimize the damage customers will cause.
Humans tend to have opinions even for things that they do not buy. And their opinions can be of more interest/use when they have to do with massively popular products.
Here in Canada where the oligopoly of telcos locks you into 3 year contracts many people in my family still use their 3GS. In fact everyone in my immediate family with an iPhone has the 3GS (as did I until May when mine broke). Also worth noting that the 3GS has been sold up until this very day.
Some Canadians have been upgrading from the iPhone 3G this fall as well, which was sold up until summer 2010. My coworker just got a 4S and gave his 3G to his mom who now loves it.
I have no idea what it's like in SF and other similar places but there's a big world outside of California.
But this is exactly his point. Only in mobile devices is 3 years considered old to the point of irrelevance, and Android is far worse, closer to 3 months.
It can be justified on technological or economic grounds, but either way, environmental sustainability considerations clearly don't enter into the equation.
3 months for an Android phone be irrelevant is absolutely not true. My girlfriend has a Galaxy S (released June 2010) that runs every single game in the Android Market perfectly and was updated to Gingerbread (and maybe will be updated to ICS). It is not the best device out there but is still very relevant and she doesn't see a single reason to buy a new device.
I don't believe you can downgrade to 3.1.3 any more. When you restore an OS image, iTunes checks whether it is a valid image with Apple's servers. After a major version has been out for a while, Apple stop approving installs of older versions.
Wow, thank you for the suggestion! I'll definitely be trying it. I can survive with webapp Twitter until my next upgrade (or even next year for the new iPhone if it's bearable enough).
You're looking at only the launch date, whereas there are still people who are locked into carrier contracts after having bought it. AT&T stopped selling it only in June 2010 which is not even a year and half back.
Apple can plaster a lot of environment-blah blah on their website, but they (but also most Android vendors) are the anti-thesis of sustainability. Encouraging people to upgrade frequently, and quickly deprecating old models. E.g. my girlfriend's 3G is in a fine state hardware-wise, will probably function well for a few more years, but there are no more security updates.
(A mostly happy iPhone 4 user.)