Designing anything that has to be made in big volume is exciting, if you ask me - you have to really, really, really design stuff well when even a 0.05% defect rate makes a very big pile of units that don't work right off the production line

As for innovation, they're one of the very few companies who can actually really afford to innovate in a big way in electronics. Let's see... firewire? first usb-only machine? the people who made the first affordable wifi gear? proper bluetooth integration into the os? nicest lcds? first 1.8" hdd-based player? touchwheel / clickwheel?

There's also the fact that when they make something, they market the hell out of it...

Hugo