[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.