So far the only logical voice in this thread. Look Apple wants to make money no doubt, but they do it by making "insanely great" products with healthy fat margins, not by dongling (is a new word for the grammar police) you to death.
If you haven't figured it out yet, the iPhone/iPad and all Apple mobile OS devices have moved away from a file metaphor and will likely never embrace one.
This means bye bye to SD and USB ports. Having an SD card slot or a USB means having a to provide a file manager and having to embrace the file metaphor. Otherwise, you would stick in the SD card and say why can't I find/open this file type, or worse sticking in the SD card and nothing happening because there are no photos on it and there is no file manager. Imagine how confused a user would be. Likewise a USB port would mean you could attach a bunch of peripherals (e.g. GPS) that won't do anything.
This way the added on functionality is clearly defined by the add-on dongle.
Now make no mistake that Apple saw $$ in this approach as well, but I think its
just to make money is rather narcissistic and fatalistic. Apple likely has better things to do than just whore you over for $30
So everyone repeat after me...
The file metaphor is dead on Apple's mobile devices.
The file metaphor is dead on Apple's mobile devices.
The file metaphor is dead on Apple's mobile devices.