I like how John Siracusa explains the concept of "naked robotic core"
To paraphrase, the phone is the computing unit, and the user customizes it to fit it's usage.
People that never dropped a phone in their life can use it as is. People who work in construction can put hardcore shells that survive multiple floor drops. Those who like furry cases can go wild and those who want to build accessories around the phone have a smaller target to do so.
Seeing it this way, having the phone thin enough than you can put the case you want without the whole package being bulky is a feature.
To touch on the laptops, a few grams shoved off won't matter and don't justify a huge sacrifice. But the size and weight drop we had from the 15" Lombard laptops to today's 15" don't all happen in dramatically, and keeping a goal of having the next machine thinner than the previous one can help achieve huge progress in the long term.
I am not a fan of the current keyboards, but I can't throw them the stone for trying to make things thinner and lighter. I was super happy to see the lighter 2013~2015 models, and I don't want them to just settle and say "we're good enough for the next 20 years, we don't care anymore".
First of all, I disagree that people _want_ to put furry cases on their phones. Too many people have walked around for too long with giant cracks on their screens that they've realised it's better to slap on a case, even with the ugliness that goes with it. Having some minion drawing on the back of the case is just a minor positive.
More importantly though, I cannot stand how glib Apple is with their devices. Surely the engineers and managers in charge _must_ realise the responsibility on their shoulders. Are they OK with many more people contracting carpal tunnel or RSI because of the choices they made? What about the environmental costs of needing to replace perfectly functioning components like speakers just to replace a keyboard? Just for the sake of A E S T H E T I C S?
I like how John Siracusa explains the concept of "naked robotic core"
To paraphrase, the phone is the computing unit, and the user customizes it to fit it's usage.
People that never dropped a phone in their life can use it as is. People who work in construction can put hardcore shells that survive multiple floor drops. Those who like furry cases can go wild and those who want to build accessories around the phone have a smaller target to do so.
Seeing it this way, having the phone thin enough than you can put the case you want without the whole package being bulky is a feature.
To touch on the laptops, a few grams shoved off won't matter and don't justify a huge sacrifice. But the size and weight drop we had from the 15" Lombard laptops to today's 15" don't all happen in dramatically, and keeping a goal of having the next machine thinner than the previous one can help achieve huge progress in the long term.
I am not a fan of the current keyboards, but I can't throw them the stone for trying to make things thinner and lighter. I was super happy to see the lighter 2013~2015 models, and I don't want them to just settle and say "we're good enough for the next 20 years, we don't care anymore".