[psmith2.0]

True, on both (it would be nice, but I'm afraid it might cause me to baby the phone too much). Right now I don't worry about things like that.

And I agree that the iPhone holds its own with many of the consumer-level point-and-shoots. Not in every single way, but certainly close enough for regular folks. Plus, when you add in all the things an iPhone or iPod touch allows once you've taken some photos, it all kinda evens out IMO.

My iPhone 4 (soon to be upgraded to something two generations better) has been perfect for me. Everything in my iPhoto library for the past two years has come solely from it...that's a ton of events, travels, parties, adventures, time with friends and family, etc. Nothing has turned out so bad or unusable that I wish I'd had a "real camera". I can't see me ever buying a standalone camera again, honestly.

So even if Apple did this, I wouldn't want something else to carry around, take care of, sync, charge, update, etc. I prefer the "Swiss army knife" aspect of my phone...a single "does many things really well" device, vs. an additional "does one thing great (but probably not in any way my amateur eyes would notice or appreciate enough to justify owning)" product to deal with. YMMV.

I'm perfectly willing to give up optical zoom and whatever else the iPhone may lack, camera-wise, for all the other things I can do with it.