Originally Posted by
ScottC
But then you are kind of defeating the purpose of a thin machine. On a trip you'll need the USB Ethernet adapter, a VGA dongle, a USB mobile broadband card, the USB superdrive, possibly a USB card reader and a USB hub. If you go with something 0.06" thicker you get a machine with all of that built in AND an optical drive AND all the ports you need.
It's a REAL trade off, and I'm convinced there is a market for it, but I'm not sure the market consists of that many roadwarriors.
Maybe not most roadwarriors, but some. I dunno. I'm no roadwarrior, but when I do hit the road for work I could do without the optical drive, card reader, hub, video out and mobile broadband. If I did need something USB, I wouldn't likely need to have more than one attached at the same time. If I wanted a card reader, I'd want it to be external anyway because I'd want to be able to use it on more than one machine. Probably ditto for the mobile broadband, really, although I really think that should be built in. At this stage in our offices I would still need the USB ethernet adapter, but that's it. Or, actually, I could just take an AirPort Express, which I do anyway for the hotel room. That should work in the offices as well if I wanted. At over 2lbs less than my MacBook Pro, I wouldn't mind the tradeoff. But I'm not really in a position to change it right now, I don't think. I'm sorta trying to find a way. ;-)
I'm not saying it's the best tradeoff for everyone, not at all. I'm just thinking I can see how Steve/Apple came to the conclusion that this would be enough, because it seems like it would work okay for me.