I think that's a bit cynical.

Apple's all about the user experience, and I think they have rightly judged that enough of the new features won't perform adequately to be a satisfying user experience.

You can quibble about the call, but how many other phone OS vendors would support 2-year-old phones for a free upgrade? How many other phone OSes even do upgrades on old phones?

(Android does, a little, but I think most of the Android vendors aren't supporting, e.g., Froyo, on their older 1.5 handsets.)

> Apple's all about the user experience, and I think they have rightly judged that enough of the new features won't perform adequately to be a satisfying user experience.

What feature a 1st-gen iPod lacks that makes it satisfactory on a second-generation unit? IIRC, the only change is the addition of Bluetooth, processor and memory being the same.

>Apple's all about the user experience

If this was true, you'd see a lot fewer articles about them on HN, TC, etc.