Don't feel sorry. I'm still happy
I bought my iPad in June, and there's still nothing on the market that's significantly cheaper, with the same abilities. Yes I know there's a bunch of Android cheapies from China, for under £200 - but Android isn't a tablet OS yet, and the screens and batteries aren't all that hot anyway. The Toshibas break, and the Samsung is more expensive.
That's actually quite impressive. Any PC/smartphone/console would be expected to have dropped at least 20% in price in that timeframe. Either itself, or the competition. I'm sure Apple's margins have gone up over that timeframe, but the competition still hasn't caught up, so Apple's price can't be that much of a rip-off.
So I've had 6 month's use of my iPad, which weighs half what my old HP tablet did, and has 3 times the battery life. I might start to get an itchy credit card by the time Android 3 comes out, but that'll be nearly a year after I got the iPad.
By the looks of it, that'll only match what I've already got, so I guess my next tablet will be in 2 years. I can live with 2 years lifecycle, from a portable device costing the same as a modern smartphone.
If you didn't buy tech because something better and cheaper will be along in a year, then you'd still be on a Commodore 64 or perhaps Colossus...