you just came to a profound conclusion that would let you personally grow to a billion-dollar consumer electronics company (if you kept following through on it,

you just came to a profound conclusion that would let you personally grow to a billion-dollar consumer electronics company (if you kept following through on it, and building a community around that one perfect choice - assuming that, like Apple, you're actually qualified to make that choice and develop it.) then you dismiss it as crazy talk. of course the easiest engineering choice is not to make choices - let the consumer choose. just give them long, long lists of component choices. worked for dell, right? right?? That doesn't require as many/any fundamental engineering choices to be made. It also doesn't get you Apple's brand or customers. If you let me put my own laptop together from whatever components I wanted - where is "you" in the equation anyway?