Maybe Apple is actively trying to prevent hacking...

Despite what that exec said, it seems like Apple has taken additional steps to prevent hacking. Here are some posts from TUAW about this-

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/15/the-state-of-the-itouch-jailbreak/
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/18/state-of-the-itouch-jailbreak-slow-forward-progress/

I don't understand everything they're doing, but some of the comments ("No luck yet on finding the key, which may be getting served from Apple", and "Apple had zero'ed out the encryption key this time around") make me wonder what Apple is doing on their side. The current iTouch firmware (or something very similar) may end up in the next iPhone update, which sounds like will be a pain to hack.

I do know the previous iPhone update didn't break any existing hacks, so we'll see. But it seems unlikely that Apple would make security on the non-phone Touch tougher than on the 'bring the entire network down' iPhone (especially since they share a lot of the same hardware and software.)

I think they will break through eventually. But this makes me wonder what will come next time there is an update. And the time after that...

Obviously no one knows what will happen. But those links are interesting reading for those who anticipate hacking their Touch's and want to install the missing Apple apps (and other 3rd party apps.)