[JohnFen]

> Turns out capacitive touchscreens were a great fit for cell phones

Sure. However removing the physical buttons on cellphones was a pretty big loss that the touchscreens do not make up for.

[illiac786]

I disagree. Increased screen size as a result of removing physical buttons makes up for the loss of physical buttons in my view.

You can now watch a movie, play a game, even browser a crappy website with desktop-only layout on an iPhone Mini. Try to do this if half the screen estate is replaced with physical button.

I am a big fan of physical buttons though, I which apple would add more of them on the sides, with some programmables, that would be awesome. Some Android devices have this for example.

[_carbyau_]

Maybe not in usability but in component costs it likely was great.

As you know, products aren't made for the customer, they are made for the equation: customerMoney - (ProductionCost + MarketingCost etc etc) = Profit