[Splines]

Internally at MSFT we have support discussion lists that are used by field personnel to interact with the product team; our VP is on the alias and sometimes answers questions with the products that they used to directly work on.

Granted, joining a discussion list is easier than monitoring product returns, but there is probably an analog for the retail channel (i.e., there is probably an upwards-facing report on iPad 2 sales and returns, and this note was probably included as an item of interest). I'm just guessing though.

Odds are that anybody who really knows isn't going to tell you.