[brookst]

This is a really strange take on how product development works.

If Apple came out with something that users did not want, and other manufacturers were still shipping what users wanted, why would anyone have ever bought Apple products?

And even in the Windows PC market, if users really want modular batteries, wouldn't you have been the last manufacturer to move away from them? If you're Acer, and Dell / HP / Lenovo are shipping products users don't want, wouldn't you clean up by continuing to ship what users want?

I think you should be more upset that users want the wrong thing (from your perspective). Product design, especially in competitive markets, is all about differentiating by better meeting user needs. This tinfoil idea that users are sheep who are tricked into buying what they don't want is not realistic.

[nine_k]

There is no single user with a single taste. While some users sincerely like the razor-thin, flat-keyed macbook airs with their mirror-finish retina screens. Some others, like me, strongly prefer the bulky, perfectly user-serviceable Thinkpad T series laptops, with their superior keyboards and matte screens. Some other users love their tiny 12" mini-laptops. There are customers who consciously choose Alienware gaming laptops, or Thoughbooks.

What Apple make is always partly a fashion accessory though. Many wanted macbooks for the reason that they look cool, even though the hard edges are manifestly uncomfortable while typing. Some laptop producers made devices with similar aesthetics, again because it was a fashion statement, not because cardboard-thin laptops are more comfortable to carry around, or are functionally superior.

[brookst]

I think you may be misunderstanding the motivations of people who have different priorities than you.

[nine_k]

I mostly am trying to say that there are different priorities. Looking cool is a valid priority for some, and I'm not going to devalue it. Compactness and light weight is also very important for a lot of people. This is on top of some very impressive engineering that Apple put into their machines.