http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/planned-obsolescence-as-myth-or-reality/?_r=0
"In a notable paper from 1986, Jeremy Bulow asserted that a monopolist not threatened by entry would have an incentive to produce goods with “inefficiently short useful lives.” But if consumers have the option to switch to good substitutes — as arguably they do now in the smartphone market — the incentives could run in the opposite direction. Your company might capture a larger share of the market if consumers believe your products are more durable."
They have to stay just one camel straw ahead of "who will we go to?" That's all the specification they have to engineer to. To do that they have to devalue their previous doctrine products in order to make the new doctrine products more paletable, but those new doctrine products still have to be conspicuously costly for the weak-minded or the socially-hostage to feel they can only come from a superhuman source. The GB are handpicked (by who knows what metric) to sustain a reality distortion field.
Apologies for pointing at the engieering and not the science.