I was talking with Nick Nichols of Novell about the neverending "what's old is new again" meme and he made a great point — it is very important these days to be seen as "green" and so what better way to get credit for green-ness than by recycling old messages and functionality? (;-))

On a more serious note, trying to wade through "new messages" when you feel like you've been there, done that can be extremely tricky. I have two reactions to it:

1. This highlights just how critical market timing is when bringing a product to market. Sometimes, you have to wait for other markets to mature before the attention is turned to your solution area.
2. It is a tough lesson for smaller companies to learn that promising the world in rev 1.0 leaves absolutely no room for growth in a product. (Hint: "enhanced" functionality is hard to get excited about.)

The first point is a perfectly legitimate marketing phenomenon; the second… not so much.