This can have some interesting side-benefits from a hackerly perspective. Out of a mixture of frugality and fondness for the compact form-factor, I used my 12" G4 PowerBook way past its prime, which towards the end was an interesting exercise in both cross-platform compatibility (after Apple's x86 switch), and in optimizing my desktop experience to use more efficient apps and setups. I've often thought there would be some benefits (admittedly offset with some downsides) if hardware actually moved slower, and people kept their machines for, say, 2x as long on average.

Even with things like game consoles, I think the progress of technology means we move on before we really understand what a machine can do. I recently read a book on the Atari VCS, which fairly convincingly argued that during its short commercial life only a small portion of the platform's design space was really explored (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/026201257X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...).

Admittedly those are pretty different kinds of motivations than the ethical issues around production.