The crack market is alive and well. They are selling to gadget manufacturers and software publishers. You always wondered why your toys were so expensive. Now you know why.

Are you an iPod user? Which generation do you have? How many do you have? Do you feel the need to upgrade every time Steve Jobs sneezes another version on to the market? If you do, you are not alone.

The Kindle. Version 2 was officially unveiled yesterday (February 9, 2009). $359. And then you pay for the books. There is a special deal for owners of the first version; order now and go to the front of the line. Loyalty discount? No. And why should they when they can barely keep up with demand. Looks like they took a page out of the Apple play book: removed the SD slot and the battery has to be replaced by the factory ($60), no longer provide a protective cover.

Regular upgrades, guys, regular upgrades. Get people used to the pain of purchase.

Don’t forget software. How many people can say that they use more than a fraction of the functionality in Microsoft Word? Or are even aware of it. Some people even believe that you have to upgrade the Office suite when you upgrade Windows, because it won’t work any more. For most of us – and by most I mean 95% – we would be just fine with Office 97. A letter, is a letter, is a letter. Every new version (of any kind of software) just keeps getting bigger and bigger. A one inch margin looks the same today as it did in 1997.

Or Excel. Most people use it for keeping lists. I’m going to cry.

And each new version is aimed for dumber people. Have you noticed that? You try to do something and it won’t let you. Usually because it thinks you are trying to resign when all you want is a raise. Microsoft Access is a prime example. Version 97 was the last good one, since then … well, I need to be alone.

Why do we upgrade?

Part of the reason is that, to keep employees happy, employers want to provide them the same tools they have at home.  This from ComputerWorldUK: “Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is warning IT organizations that they risk provoking an end user backlash if they don’t move off the XP operating system. ‘If you deploy a four or five-year old operating system today, most people will ask their boss why the heck they don't have the stuff they have at home,’ the Microsoft CEO said.” Good grief!

I would disagree with him, but I remember when employees would complain because their desktop computer was older than their home machine. I wrote last week about form and function. These are tools, people! The computer was almost never the road block; it was the water-cooler and people re-hashing last nights TV.

Now, software is designed to perform best on the next computer you get.

Microsoft was really surprised when a lot of their corporate customers said No to Vista. By all accounts, Vista is “OK” now, but it is too late. Windows 7 Beta is on the streets (last day to download was yesterday) and almost everyone is ecstatic.

The other part of the upgrade equation is the desire to be safer. This is a red herring. While people are  involved in the process, nothing is really safe. This just makes us lazier.

So, these are the self-inflicted upgrades. There are other kinds? Oh yes!

At the turn of the century (how often do you get to say that!), I was trying to sell software to airlines and corporate flight departments. One of the features of my products was that they lived on the Internet, in the cloud, on my server. You didn’t have to install anything, or ever worry about upgrades. The downside to this type of software is that once I have more than one client, you all use the same version of the software. It doesn’t make sense for me to maintain and house multiple versions. So if I implement a new feature, all the customers get it. And they all lose one if I take it away.

Can’t relate? Think Facebook. When they change the design, everyone gets the change even if you loved the way it looked yesterday. Did they take away some really cool feature? Tough.

There are many companies offering this type of software today. It can be very attractive to organizations. They don’t need anyone to create it, or maintain it, or … anything. Very short-sighted. There is always a hidden cost. And that is the time and energy that some poor employee has to put in to installing it, syncing it, trying to fix something you can’t touch, security, etc. All the stuff that happens after the check is written and people have crossed it off their list of goals.

Unfortunately, these companies also have the same illness that your word processing software does. It has to get bigger, brighter, shinier, stronger, taller, sexier. If it doesn’t, someone doesn’t care about their customer, right?

And this is the problem. Consumers expect change. They demand it.

So next time you see powder leaking from your recent purchase, don’t call security. It’s just the crack.