[BadAndy]

"How many lawsuits do you think would have been filed if Apple had, for example, written back to people who suggested adding video to the Ipods a " thanks for your suggestion " letter before they got around to putting one into production ? "

Exactly. Companies must protect themselves from the crackpots who try to get rich by contesting intellectual property rights by claiming to have given the company an idea. It can be expensive to prove that you were working on an invention for 5 years before someone from out of the woods sends you a letter suggesting it.

[Obi-Wandreas]

As my wife just pointed out, even if they had an update planned to ship tomorrow, they might have to can it entirely, simply because it would be too risky (and expensive) to release it. Besides, she could have simply used their feedback form, which states in the small print that feature requests become the property of Apple. This is how they protect themselves.