mirthMar 15
@miss_rodent @glyph I might have missed it in the summaries but odd omissions for classroom durability are liquid/dust resistance and fold flat screen. I expect Apple will try to keep the color as a market segmentation vs the Air, which itself isn't that much more expensive but likely is a more profitable sale.
Show threadGlyphMar 15

RE: https://mastodon.social/@glyph/116234516244087521

@mirth @miss_rodent haha jinx

Show threadGlyphMar 15
@mirth @miss_rodent I agree that fold-flat screen would have made sense, but (A) that's a new type of engineering that would probably have been cost-prohibitive here (the hinge is already surprisingly high quality but that's a manufacturing cost; it's a clone of the existing macbook hinge and apple has not done fold-flat hinges on anything else)
(B) probably would have been unpopular internally, just culturally, as looking like iPad cannibalization
Show threadmirth
@glyph @miss_rodent My guess is at their volumes, and given the wide precedent in other laptops, a fold flat would be no more expensive than what they do. I'd give it good odds it's more of their aesthetics-over-functionality hubris, the survivability benefit is pretty high and after decades they have to know that.
Mar 15 at 6:14pmWeb