In response to this posting at the New York Times, Disruptions: You Know You Can't Live Without Apple's Latest Glass Rectangle by Nick Bilton…
Wow, I don't come close to agreeing... The naiveté exposed in this article is staggering.
Fins on a Cadillac? Nothing functional about the fins changed (because there was nothing functional about the fins, of course). The look of the exterior of a TV as the sole criterion for choosing one? This guy is a world champ idiot.
The operant in the evolution of Apple products over the past few years has been to build at the absolute limits of what is possible and financially feasible at the same time in the consumer space.
Look at the product line over the last, I don't know, decade? Each new model has been built using manufacturing techniques, parts and design that were not possible in the previous design. It takes the market's adoption of a new technique to drive manufacturing and component vendors to rise to the challenge of producing at that level. The one spurs the other and the evolution continues.
The current battery design in the majority (but not all) of Apple's portable device line uses the space around the MLB and other components, showing a flexibility that was previously unheard of. It had been discussed, foreseen, etc, but here it is in a product you can buy. The next step is to use the actual body form of the device as the battery and I'll bet Apple gets there first as well.
The trayless optical drives that Apple uses (used?) in its devices is another example. Remember cupholders? Apple pushed hard for manufacturers to meet their demands for trayless drives.
The Retina display on the latest MBPs? It's built INTO the lid of the computer, the two are essentially fused as a single element.
There are so many other examples...
The point I'm making is that what we're seeing is a company that continuously pushes its suppliers to work at the very limits of what they can do and Apple is comfortable doing this because they have built a market that appreciates the substantive advances in design that they have been making.
I'm using a 15" MBP Retina because the weight saved by its industry-leading design means that I don't have to compromise with a 13" MBP to make carrying it all day comfortable.
And, in case anyone forgets why Apple is so beholden to a clean design sense that emphasizes thinner and lighter without compromising power consider the reality that Apple has built. Millions of us work on our devices everywhere, in the car, in the coffee shop, at the office, at home, on the plane, in the gym, everywhere. These devices are with us all the time and their design strives to be worthy of that level of interaction.