And early computers were pretty poorly planned out.  Today a mouse is a necessity and makes casual computing quite simple.  That didn't happen instantly when personal computing first started.

You can thank the engineers at Xerox PARC for that, and engineers-turned-businessmen Bill Gates and Steve Jobs for stealing the idea. :P

In order to have a successful company in a technological area, your leadership must be proficient in both business and the technology domain of the company.  One of the reasons GM is failing, Xerox PARC failed, and Microsoft and Apple are on top of the world.

well, it takes all kinds of skill sets to undertake a large project.  I seriously doubt that any one person "designed" an IPod...

No doubt you need designers and artists to come up with the design, but the design has to be fabbable (hence you need engineers) and has to be acceptabel to the market (hence you need people who do market surveys) and you need people who can build, and test, and a sales staff....

And then, once your project becomes sufficiently complex, you need "system engineering" to put it all together (this is what Steve Jobs provides).  The IPod (and the space shuttle, and the moon program) was all put together with system engineering.

But, if you promise not to go around denigrating engineers, I promise not to go around denigrating industrial designers.

Well, I promise not to go around denigrating industrial designers regardless =)