[dmaul1114]

What? They can just load their songs on their new iPhone or whatever they buy in a few years. No need to repurchase any songs, any more than there is when upgrading to a newer iPod Nano every few years.

All technology is always in flux and needs replaced every 5 years at a minimum for people who want to stay current. Whether that's a multifunction device or a single purpose device. My Kindle 1 will be obsolete in a few years when there are color e-ink devices out that don't suck ass at magazines, newspapers, letter sized PDFs etc. So I'll want a new one even if I stick with a dedicated reader.

Single purpose devices have the advantage of doing that one function typically better than multifunction devices. Multifunction devices offer convenience of doing several task the user needs without having to lug around multiple devices. I'll take convenience over quality in this case since I spend lot of time surfing the net, watching movies, watching TV and sports, reading books, reading magazines, reading and marking up PDFs, grading student papers etc. etc. and would kill for a 10" or so tablet device that could do all that stuff.