Are you imagining that — for those who still have early-generation iPhones and "are already making payments on their 4" — that Apple is getting a cut of those p

Are you imagining that — for those who still have early-generation iPhones and "are already making payments on their 4" — that Apple is getting a cut of those payments? I doubt that they are, and I don't see why Apple would appreciate that. I've never heard anybody else talk about upgrading in terms of "force" like you have. It appears, from my perspective, that your mental calculus for making your purchase is the rare case, and that many people don't want to bite the additional up-front cost of a new phone and don't want to to extend the length of their contract. I would wager that most people would roll their eyes at folks like me who would upgrade a perfectly good 3GS to a 4 just for the better display. Yeah, they're not doing the math, but not doing the math is the norm — not the exception. So, again, I think your offense is misplaced.