Once again, another over hyped announcement from Apple has come and gone. Steve Jobs and his marketing wizards indoctrinated swooned the masses with their latest cash cow - the highly anticipated iPhone 4.

As a PC hardware junkie, who performs SMART UPGRADES on a timely basis, it makes me giggle when people fall prey to over zealous marketing hype. I begin to shudder when people spend hundreds of dollars to get the latest Smartphone, especially on a yearly basis. Potential customers whine about being locked into untimely contracts, along with predatory pricing from wireless carriers, so they can lay claim to the latest gadget.

For most consumer electronics, there will always be new technology releases every year.  Each release will have a price/benefit ratio that will determine performance and, most important of all, the overall user experience.  The same can be rationalized for commodities such as a Smartphone.

Given the new features of the iPhone 4, a yearly upgrade cycle is not always beneficial for a majority of consumers.  After all, most users will not utilize every hardware or software feature to the maximum nor does the iPhone 4 cause a huge lifestyle shift over the previous iPhone 3GS.  It’s a meager evolution of previous iterations with no huge jumps in technology.

Unless a new Smartphone forces a big shift in lifestyle, save your money and stay away from the yearly upgrade trap. What’s really important is the ability to maintain your wireless plan or allowing it to expire. Furthermore, choosing the right contract or plan is a lot more important than buying a new Smartphone. And like it or not, each new release, including the iPhone 4, will inevitably become unfashionable within a course of a year.