[glassheart]

If a website makes an update, all users will get the new version as soon as caches expire. Something like an iOS update can also reach a large majority of users within weeks. Hardware that you've already shipped will remain in customer hands, obviously unchanged, yet still need to be supported through the warranty period and beyond. I don't understand why you would say that's nothing different. Your QA department would need to test software against many more versions of hardware, your software engineers would have to fix those bugs, and your after-sales support staff would have a harder time as well.

Also, it's not as if other companies ship exactly the same hardware throughout the lifecycle of a product. New suppliers are added, parts that have been identified as a return driver are reworked, and even major mid-life changes (consider the slim versions of each PlayStation as an example) happen as a matter of course.