This seems like it happens with physical products too more and more. I may be reading too much into it, but it often feels like this is done (with products and

This seems like it happens with physical products too more and more. I may be reading too much into it, but it often feels like this is done (with products and software) to soften you up with the aim of shifting things subtly in favour of the producer: - make it less something you settle with longer-term and more something that's basically roughly the same axe but differs on a pretty short timeframe - use the changes to probe what people care about to a greater / less extent - take away as much that the average person doesn't care about enough to get really annoyed about (which is fine if it's cheaper/better for the consumer but often it's more about hiding the change in the blizzard of activity so you don't get it cheaper or notice the cuts that save the producer without passing it on). In software the one that was eternally annoying everyone I worked with was WebEx - initially a product that was great in my firm but eventually became the reason no one could start meetings on time because you couldn't rely on it launching in a timely manner because there'd be some idiotic update. It carried on until we ditched it abruptly - great move PM :) Anyway, it's annoying but at least it's not as bad as the other modern trend: wilfully messing things up for you, so they can charge you to have the non-messed up version back (eg airline seats being broken up on purpose for no good reason! Unless you pay a fee for them not to be a total pain!)