Free upgrades and updates are great, but over the last few weeks you may have started to wonder if you can have too much of those good things.

My records here read:

• 16 Sep iOS 9.0, Xcode 7.0, iTunes 12.3, OS X Server 5.0.3
• 21 Sep watchOS 2.0, OS X Server 5.0.4
• 23 Sep iOS 9.0.1
• 28 Sep Xcode 7.0.1
• 30 Sep OS X 10.11 El Capitan
• 16 Oct Numbers 3.6, Pages 5.6, Keynote 6.6
• 21 Oct OS X 10.11.1, EFI Update, iOS 9.1, iTunes 12.3.1, OS X Server 5.0.15, Xcode 7.1, watchOS 2.0.1.

In addition to those, in the few weeks running up to 30 September, I counted over thirty different apps which were updated in preparation for El Capitan, and there have been another thirty since.

Over this period of five weeks, we have been through three different versions of iOS, OS X Server, and Xcode, and two different versions of OS X and watchOS – of course if you count the versions which we started from on 16 September, those become four and three respectively.

If you think that is unsettling as a user, consider what iOS and OS X developers must have been through: just as they were starting to catch up with the last set of changes, everything including Xcode changed once again.

I was told that, some years ago, a leading car manufacturer only achieved their high quality standards by fixing many defects; typically around half the factory gate cost of their cars had been consumed replacing doors, engines, and performing other major rectification. The biggest single saving in cost which they could have made was to build their cars right first time.

Had Apple built each right first time, the update calendar should have read:

• 16 Sep iOS 9.0, Xcode 7.0, iTunes 12.3, OS X Server 5.0.3
• 21 Sep watchOS 2.0
• 30 Sep OS X 10.11 El Capitan
• 16 Oct Numbers 3.6, Pages 5.6, Keynote 6.6.

Just think of what you could have done with all the time that would have saved.