[lleger]

A doctored image about any aspect is still a doctored image — the same principles apply.

But still: it doesn't matter. Consumers aren't buying products based upon a photo. With the iPad, they've either already decided they want one or went into the store and saw it for themselves and then decided. This one picture really doesn't matter.

Why is Apple the only company being called out? If anyone — besides Apple-haters — really cared about this, image doctoring wouldn't be such a pervasive technique used in all forms of marketing. Other companies would be the focus, too — Apple isn't alone here.

This has nothing to do with image doctoring and everything to do with Apple.

[blueben]

Or, perhaps, it's about a culture where little lies and cheats like this are accepted as "no big deal".