To make money and drum up new interest on new and refreshed product lines. Apple didn't invent product cycles. Pretty well all gadget companies do this. I used to look forward to October and April many years ago; those were Palm's refresh months -- April for the low end lines, October for the high ends. It's all about making money, generating new customers, building brand loyalty, and maintaining interest, and you do that by getting in the public's face at least once a year with something new and shiny. As for build quality, I've never had a problem with anything I've had -- well, except my current Macbook Pro, which has the stagelights issue, but I use it over a KVM switch anyway, so I rarely even have the Macbook open unless I'm on the road, and even then it doesn't bother me much. Otherwise I've found Apple's build quality to be pretty good on the whole. They're not perfect, but show me someone who is; I'd say Apple is above par at least; I've bought into products that were far worse. I said you won't see a camera flash because it disturbs the lines of Apple's industrial design, which would make Mr. Ive give everyone dirty, dirty looks. Adobe Flash, on the other hand, is too slow and cumbersome for Steve to support. The only other place I mentioned slowness was in the multitasking issue. The HTC D2 is a larger phone with a larger battery. It can deal. The iPhone's battery is small and Apple does everything it can to make sure the demands of the hardware and OS are as low as possible in order to be able to make long battery life claims. I didn't say it wasn't important, I said it wasn't going to happen. Like, ever. Steve is just not going there. There's really no point in belabouring it any longer so we might as well get over it and move on. If you say the HTC Touch Diamond 2, please get out your D20 and make a saving throw versus pathos. You'll need to roll a 21.
