I know Apple is using the Jailbreak community for ideas. I've read from a couple of resources that there were over 190 Dev-Team downloads from Apple Corporate Offices over the last year or so, which tells me they're watching. I mean Clippy, which is a copy/paste tool on the JB scene looks a LOT like what we have now in 3.0. Not to mention the video, which has been with the JB scene since the 2G.
Apple isn't retarded. They watch. It's like free development 'cause they can grab it, re-engineer it into their own, and most developers won't say anything because of all the heat the JB scene has.