[subbz]

Aside from saving money, they're doing it also to generate sales.

In iPhone 15 the missing button will be the feature. Some years later, say in iPhone 18, the re-introduced button will be the feature.

All that happened before with Apple devices. They took away the form factor of the original iPhone SE without replacement just to bring it back with the iPhone 13 Mini. Also they took away the ports of MacBooks to end up with an USB-C port only - and now - the latest 14" MacBooks reintrudice a wide range of ports as a.. can you guess?

[kurthr]

Don't worry, the Mini is going away. It's not profitable (enough).

However, the increased haptics and strain sensor costs are unlikely to be made up directly by button cost savings. It does make it much easier to seal the entire thing and it may reduce volume (more battery), or increase "functionality", but I think it is to some extent (as others have mentioned) it's really the final step in Steve Jobs long bitter personal war on the button.

Really, I worry more that there may be no way to reliably reset your phone once they remove the USB cable and everything is wireless.

[rappr]

The original iPhone SE and iPhone Mini designs are not the same.