I am personally very happy with the way Apple does things. Sure there are the occasional moments where you scratch your head at their reasoning sometimes. Overall though, you can pretty much rely on them to push the edges of the envelope.
Technology such as MacBooks, iPads, Apple TVs, iPods etc are luxuries. They are not things people are entitled to. The Apple Tax as many call it is not for everyone. As others have suggested, buying Apple means being informed, doing research, and educating yourself.
After seeing my Apple TV2 my cousin wanted one. He ran out, purchased it and then was furious that he could not hook it up to his non HD 8 year old TV. He whined and carried on something awful to the point where you would think Apple ran over his cat, burned down his house, and knocked up his wife. Eventually, he went to the store and bought a new TV with his tax refund, hooked it all up and he was drooling over how much nicer all his stuff was. He even said later that he wouldn't have known what he was missing had he not bought the Apple TV2.
If it weren't for companies like Apple who constantly innovate, we would all still be using ancient tech as others have posted. I can't imagine going back to cellphones pre-iPhone. Now, every cell phone copies it's form and function. Without iPads, you can pretty much guarantee there would still be the same horrible Windows based tablet PCs that no one used if they could avoid it.
You are complaining that by making changes to their products without notice, Apple is doing something wrong. Would you prefer they come right out and tell all of their competitors their exact strategy? As an AAPL stock holder, I'm very glad they are as secretive as they can be. Their secrecy and Android nipping at their heels will ensure the best is yet to come. If that means an iPad 3 this fall, then so be it. It will hurt having just put down money for my new iPad2, but it can go live with a family member while I spring for it's sibling. Not everyone can afford to do that, but that's my guilty pleasure in life. I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes her toys.
As far as programs to reimburse/credit people who just bought an Apple product before a hardware change, Apple has some. One such example is the price drop on on the iPad 1, and Apple giving out $100 rebates to those who purchased one in the last few weeks. That's fair of them to do and they didn't even have to do that.
If you believe the iPad 2 would be better suited to your business needs, then sell the 1st gen to offset it's price. For your Bose sound dock and your nano, I don't know about that one. Personally have not bought an iPod since getting an iPhone. It works perfectly fine on my Sound Dock (the portable one).
