That doesn't sound anything like a policy decision or "unofficial limit." It sounds like a technical issue. The (apparent) fact that the device performance degrades as more and more apps are added suggests it's some sort of resource constraint. If Apple had imposed a 500 app limit, it would either fail at 501 or not allow you to install the 501st app.

I put this in the same category with the people who have 1,627,326 emails on their computer and bitch about how slow the email client is. Or the ones with two terabytes of stolen mp3s they rarely listen to complaining about how iTunes chokes on this.

Not sure why this would be an issue. Apps are just bits on the flash memory until launched. The CPU doesn't need to process anything for an unloaded app.

The only slow down/memory issue would be if the Springboard tries to cache the icons and paths of the apps all at once, which may have been a possibility. A more intelligent caching system needs to be used. For example, the Springboard could cache, the current page, the previous two and next two.

Originally Posted by lkrupp

I put this in the same category with the people who have 1,627,326 emails on their computer and bitch about how slow the email client is. Or the ones with two terabytes of stolen mp3s they rarely listen to complaining about how iTunes chokes on this.

We have modern computers - people should expect them to perform well. A million of anything isn't a lot to a computer - well, it shouldn't be.

Originally Posted by lkrupp

I put this in the same category with the people who have 1,627,326 emails on their computer and bitch about how slow the email client is. Or the ones with two terabytes of stolen mp3s they rarely listen to complaining about how iTunes chokes on this.

Which I put in the same category as anal retentives that 'need to keep their inbox clean', despite storage being cheap, it taking gobs of wasted time to do so, and Smart Folders or Spotlight allowing you to find anything quickly. Even more so when they then bitch or panic that they can't find old conversation details, and need to bug me for them, because they are weird counter productive neat freaks too stupid to know that number of emails in a mailer doesn't slow it down

Ditto for anal retentive morons trying to take the moral high ground about how orderly and tidy they are in iTunes, because they don't know how iTunes operates either.

So, ya, nice try. But not so much.