I recently returned a wifi router to Futureshop as it was useless and I needed to upgrade. In front of me in the line up was a nervous looking young man with a Sony eBook reader in his hand. As his turn came to approach the returns counter he asked for a refund and as the lady inspected the item he continually stuttered there was nothing wrong with it. This is a familiar sight to me and I recognise it as 'upgrade fever'. The hope that an item you recently purchased or were given can be returned in the hope you can buy the latest thing that got launched which makes your old 'cool gadget', uncool.

Immediately after as I walked to the Wifi Router section to find a worthy replacement I passed the young man again in the 'Apple' section of the store frantically pouring over the Apple website showing the iPad (released only that morning). He looked relaxed now as he had returned his Sony eBook reader and probably had sufficient funds to purchase the iPad when it launches in Canada.

All around the world right now there are people returning Sony eBook readers, Kindle, Laptops and more before the returns policy expires in the hope that they can then fund their new purchase of the iPad.

Well done Apple. Once more you have created a 'need to have' gadget that no one really 'needs to have'.