heatseeker

heatseeker
 n.

   [IBM] A customer who can be relied upon to buy, without fail, the
   latest version of an existing product (not quite the same as a member
   of the {lunatic fringe}). A 1993 example of a heatseeker was someone
   who, owning a 286 PC and Windows 3.0, went out and bought Windows 3.1
   (which offers no worthwhile benefits unless you have a 386). If all
   customers were heatseekers, vast amounts of money could be made by
   just fixing some of the bugs in each release (n) and selling it to
   them as release (n+1). Microsoft in fact seems to have mastered this
   technique.
    

heatseeker

   <person, jargon> (IBM) A customer who can be relied upon to
   buy, without fail, the latest version of an existing product
   (not quite the same as a member of the {lunatic fringe}).  A
   1993 example of a heatseeker is someone who, owning a 286 PC
   and Windows 3.0, goes out and buys {Windows 3.1} (which offers
   no worthwhile benefits unless you have a 386).  If all
   customers were heatseekers, vast amounts of money could be
   made by just fixing the bugs in each release (n) and selling
   it to them as release (n+1).

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1996-03-12)