@Martin, thnks. The use of words like bang and olufsen , philips bring back what audio really should have been. There is no denying that Apple falls into that category, but locking down it''s OS to hardware is totally anti-development. This makes it the top most proprietary system, when compared to other paid OSés. If anyone can hack on Unix based platforms, there is no need to be paying top dollar for such. Apple's popularity maybe driven by design but the fact that middle income sectors have grown thus there is money to purchase such devices. In the recent riots in the UK, Apple's products were most wanted, driving a youth culture of devices rather than code.

 

Rgds.