Mountain Lion

http://www.apple.com/uk/mac/

do we need an upgrade so soon after lion?

Apple is moving to an annual upgrade cycle.

If they have new stuff to add I don't see why not. The cost of OS X upgrades are very reasonably priced.

I'm not so bothered about yearly upgrades - saying that, I am still on Snow Leopard, however, I am concerned with where they are heading in terms of OS functionality. At the moment, it seems they are going down the IOS route and eventually Macs will just be bigger iPads that are so locked down you can only do certain things on them.
I like playing with settings and going under the hood on a computer, if it gets too locked down that I can no longer do that, then I may have to go elsewhere for an OS...

Macs will just be bigger iPads that are so locked down you can only do certain things on them.

That will not happen.

What will happen is that the most cautious users will have the option to lock them down (Gatekeeper, for examples, has a default setting at the mid-level of security).

Apple have opted for modest incremental uptates at modest prices. Personally, I like this when compared to the annual updates at eyewatering prices I encounter with some other software that deliver almost no real improved features worth speaking of.

Agreed there, Desmond.