[clairity]

> "From a design perspective, the thin bezelless/buttonless slate makes it difficult to differentiate your product."

this plays directly into apple's strengths (build quality, UX, etc.), and i'd be very impressed if it had been a conscious strategy employed by apple over the years (apple still captures the majority of industry profits). by collapsing the feature space along (roughly) one dimension, it's easier for consumers to recognize the premium positioning of apple's iphones.