except that what you get is not proportional to what you paid for and that is exactly the reason why I'm not interested in top models of anything anymore because they don't justify the price difference from mid ranged models.
Let's foregt phones for a second and look how many other devices are out there which can be upgraded and get prolonged life with SW only. When did you last time heard that some AV receiver or TV did get SW update which enabled some new codec or something? "Oh, no, that's not possible, you have to buy a new model". Yeah, right
If that is free market and it is so benificial to every participant then how come that so many known names are exiting from doing what they did for years or strugling to stay in it? Everyone is complaining that there's no profit in low-end and mid-ranged products but at the same time they are doing nothing to make high end products worth more in the eyes of the consumers. Everything is dead and forgotten after warranty period of 12/24 months.