Design
Versus merely trying to stuff a product, burrito-style, with as many different features as possible, they target specific user experiences, and build the product around that accordingly. Mark Sigal explains Apple’s segmentation strategy, and the folly of conventional wisdom (Wayback Machine)
Multi-tasking
Sometimes they actually enhance the device. Mostly, though, they’re like a third nipple. Good for conversation, but functionally useless. Andy Ihnatko’s on hardware features, iPad and Multitasking (Wayback Machine)
Design
The bottom line is, when you listen to your users, you get vanilla. feature creep. boring. It takes a dictator to create the iPhone and change the course of an entire industry. Michael Arrington, Techcrunch