Yes. The conspiracy makes zero sense. Did they also make the case polished stainless so it would get scratched up and look like shit after a few months of real-world use? Here’s mine:
You aren’t getting those scratches out with a cleaning cloth.
No that’s flawed logic.
Again, this particular line is just speculation, so I am not claiming it’s what necessarily happened.
But yes things are noticed during product testing; that’s what testing is for. And this is true even though testing involves a much smaller set of people than a commercial release.
Heck, decent bet a bunch of staffers were given inet cases and told to carry them everywhere in pocketbor ourse & fiddlecwith them now & again.
They’d get handled, and dropped, and mingled with keyrings enough to learn how durable the cases & finishes are. Or are not.
It’s one of the reasons Apple went to glass for the iPhone instead of plastic, even though glass was not as tough.
As I understand it, the hardware designers only ever saw the hardware and the software designers only ever saw the software. When something needed to be tested, the device they used was the size of a shoebox made of plastic with the controls and buttons haphazardly arranged so no one would have even a clue what it looked liked or what it was made of. No one is developing an attachment to a plastic shoebox.
You said it’s plausible that people were “frequently polishing” it, but it really isn’t. The reason for that is because the iPod was such a secretive product that the only people who saw a finished version before Jobs unveiled it in public allegedly amounted to only Jobs and a handful of executives. That’s a much smaller set of people than you’re thinking of, to the point that I seriously doubt that any of them wasted their limited time with polishing it.
Nonsense.
A team of designers and engineers had to design the case. And the scroll wheel. And a team had to design the machines to make each of those parts. And design the special tools, if any, to assemble them. And design the factory where all that was done.
The idea that only a few suits ever saw the exterior until a week before millions of these things were flowing out of a factory is risible.
Did Apple keep the exterior design secret from the folks not working on the exterior? Sure. From the many people working on the exterior? Of course not.
I think you’re focusing a bit too much on where I said “saw” and not enough on “a finished version,” meaning the hardware and software together in the one little white device we would all become so familiar with. I’m not saying few people literally saw the hardware, which is what you seem to be suggesting I am saying. I’m repeating what’s been reported which is that few people ever saw/held/polished/whateverthefuck what would be the finished version before it was released.