Upgrades: How long is reasonable ?
Corporates are used to buying products with 3-5 year cycles where the successful supplier must give some kind of guarantee that the components used in the box will be available for X years
Smaller system vendors are cursed by this
They can make their offer look stunning - specification/performance wise - but guaranteeing to be able to supply components for 3 years can be tough unless you are a multi-national
My question is this...
...How long is reasonable ?
For example, if you buy a product which should be upgradeable - then for how long after you buy it (assume from new - with sensible profits) is the manufacturer liable to supply the upgrade ?
Graphics companies like ATI still offer tons of AGP cards - and looking after our AGP customers is a big concern for us
Indeed, we still ship PCI cards to those customers who require them
So how long is reasonable ?