I think the real answer is much simpler: cost. The iPod touch is not subsidized with a contract. They have to use the older tech to keep the cost down.
My iPhone 5 have that rattling noise near the camera to. It does feel really cheap but as long as it works I don't care that much. My 3GS does the same thing. The only thing I'm a bit worried about is the battery in the iPhone 5. It just sucks. My 3 year old 3GS with its worn out battery certainly isn't any worse. Wonder how this POS battery will hold up over the years. One area where the IPod 5 most likely is way better.
I can't agree with that as I can remember Steve Jobs himself saying some nasty stuff about the iPod Touch he really didn't seem to like it at all and stated something along the lines of it's only training wheels for the iPhone. I think it's pretty obvious the iPod has always been gimped on purpose and solely used to push the iPhone, and things like bluetooth profiles don't save Apple a penny yet they still removed the more useful ones from the touch.
My black Touch 5 arrived today. LOVE IT. No problems that I notice: no rattling, no dead pixels, scratches etc. Given its size, weight (or lack thereof) and feature set, I think the 5th gen Touch is possibly the best non-phone pocket computing device ever made. It may not be the best in every individual way, but for the money, it can do everything very well, and it looks amazing to boot. Murders my Samsung Galaxy Player and all previous Touch models, that's for damn sure. The only thing I really notice is that the light sensor is missing, which Apple explained was because of size. On my previous Touches I tended to set my brightness manually anyway, so not a huge loss. But I do understand if some people are annoyed by the omission. In every other respect the hardware is amazing.
Chocolate, I'm an iPad 3 owner as well and wondering how it compares to the iPod touch 5G. Is it noticeable slower on graphic intensive games or no? Thanks
For the owners of non-black iPod touch 5's, do the black bars, on the side for the apps that don't yet support iPhone 5/iPod Touch 5, seem to bother you or stand out a lot to you?
Also, does anybody who has a non-black/slate one find that the back scratches easily? I wanna get the Blue variant, but I don't want it to be very susceptible to scratches...