PS3 and Vista are basically the same thing

I have discovered an amazing tech secret: the PS3 and Windows Vista are using the exact same business strategy! Check this out:

• Both are pressing ridiculously expensive requirements on consumers, causing some to reconsider their plans to buy. (Vista, PS3)
• Both ripped off their only real “innovations” from a smaller competitor who is actually willing to take risks. (Vista, PS3)
• Both were unveiled with huge promises when in reality neither had any real revolutionary ideas. (Vista, PS3)
• Both originally had interesting new features which were dropped during development so that it would get released on budget. (Vista, PS3)
• Both have the unwanted “feature” of more restrictive copyright protection.
• Both are just the next lifeless release in a upgrade cycle apparently planned by the company in order to have a guaranteed stream of income.

Some economist told both these companies that they will make more money by introducing the product this fall than by doing something new and releasing it when it’s finished. I don’t think that economist is right. Nobody in their right mind will buy either of these products, unless they are forced to. In the PS3 case, a large number of unhappy consumers will probably be forced to, in order to play the newest games which are also released in a repetitive upgrade cycle. But they will sell fewer PS3s than they would if they had just done it right, which is an extremely simple proposition given the strength of the cycle.

You know, it seems beneficial, economically, for every single product in the world to be produced on such a cycle. So, every three years you will go to the store and renew your computer, your operating system, your office suite, your cell phone, your camera, all your video games, all your music and movies (in the latest hi-def format), all your non-fiction books (in the latest e-book format)… eventually people are going to want to escape from it, as goes for any cycle. For Vista and PS3, it seems we have already hit that wall.