Are people being ripped off by some of companies that produce hi-tech gadgets?
You be the judge:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/home_electronics/samsung_tv.html
Not that I have seen with Apple. The article's reference to Apple was the change in the charging plug. . . but there are good engineering reasons for that change. . . and they have not discontinued the previous 30 pin chargers which are still available in the Apple store and from literally dozens of 3rd partly licensed and unlicensed sources. My originally iPhone, which I purchased on the day they came out, June 29, 2007, has operated continuously since that day as a phone until last March, being passed down through my family, until it was finally retired as a phone, but continues being used as an iPod touch by my three year old granddaughter. . . all on the same "non-replaceable battery," which still will take an 80% charge after 7 1/2 years.
My 2007 27" iMac is still going strong and was just upgraded to run OS X.10 Yosemite, the latest and greatest Macintosh Operating System. . . and it runs several instances of Windows—XP, 7, 8.1—as well as Linux—two versions—in Virtual Machines in Sandboxes under OS X (and I have run them all at the same time, just to see if I could) as well as the underlying UNIX™ OS. . . and have installs for MS-DOS, THEOS, and several other OSes if I have need of them. All that on a SEVEN YEAR old computer. Where is the design for obsolescence???? I was offered $575 for that iMac a couple of months ago by a local computer reseller because he can sell every one he can get his hands on.
Same thing for iPhones. . . my daughter just upgraded her iPhone 4s to an iPhone 6. . . and sold the 4S, a four year old iPhone, for $175 which covered the cost for her new 6 on sale at Walmart. That's an iPhone with one of those old 30 pin connectors. . . it will be referred and resold in a 3rd world country. Not Obsolete yet.