"Apple did not design and build a 1.5 mm thin LCD panel. They did, however, do something exceptional with the design of this display: rather than sandwich an LCD panel between a back case and a front glass, they used the aluminum case itself as the frame for the LCD panel and used the LCD as the front glass."
Remember your whole theory about iFixit debunking substantial weight savings? Turns out iFixit agrees with the OP and not with you.
Would it be too obvious to point out that what you quoted doesn't even mention anything about weight?
Also, here's another direct quote for you:
"Incorporating a removable LCD into the MacBook Pro with Retina display would increase the thickness by less than a millimeter, while still preserving the awesome Retina resolution."
Unless you're going to argue that less than a millimetre is enough to swing a purchase regardless of display resolution, in which case a lot of MBP Retina owners are presumably on their way back to the Apple Store to swap for a MacBook Air, it looks like iFixit does support my claim after all.
There are a thousand ways to improve a MacBook Pro (or any other computer) that would increase the thickness by only a millimeter. Any individual one would be of essentially no consequence, but if you did them all, you'd end up with a machine a meter thick.
Any individual one would be of essentially no consequence, but if you did them all, you'd end up with a machine a meter thick.
No, you wouldn't.
But even leaving aside the obvious hyperbole of your comment, we're drifting away from the topic at hand. My argument is simply that proprietary-everything, all-in-one designs are a significant loss for the consumer and a huge win for the manufacturer, because they very effectively kill both the upgrade and repair industries, making the default response to buy more new equipment instead.
Given the disproportionately high rate of damage to mobile devices, and the relatively low starting specs, and the fact that most laptops (including Apple ones) have not had such severely restricted maintainability until very recently, this all seems like a huge step in the wrong direction, from the customer's point of view.
If it were only the screen on the Retina MBP, I could just about believe the theory that it was done to keep the size down, but it's obviously not only that screen. If you look at the direction of basically all Apple equipment in recent years, not just phones or even laptops, everything has been moving towards using unusual/proprietary connections and fixed-at-birth specifications for a while, and there are far too many cases where there was no apparent benefit of any kind for me to accept that it's all being done because it's what the customer wants. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me dozens of times over a period of years, find me a good shrink.
If it was really that bad for customers, why do people keep buying the stuff? There's plenty of modular, easily-repaired hardware out there. It doesn't sell nearly as well, though. I think people value the benefits of the non-modular design more than you think.
If it was really that bad for customers, why do people keep buying the stuff?
Who's giving them a choice, other than not buying anything at all?
I think people value the benefits of the non-modular design more than you think.
I think people value other things that may or may not have anything to do with the lack of modularity, and I think they buy devices that have those benefits. Often, they probably don't even realise the lack of modularity or its implications at the time of making a purchasing decision, but even if they did, they might still value the other benefits over any downside due to lack of modularity.
We can't really conclude much from the current trends unless manufacturers also offer devices that have the benefits of modularity as well, potentially at a greater cost literally or in terms of things like bigger size or heavier weight.
There isn't much of a choice in the tablet or phone markets, but there's a ton of choice when it comes to laptops. If you want a modular laptop you can take your pick among a ton, but people still buy Apple's in large numbers.
"Apple did not design and build a 1.5 mm thin LCD panel. They did, however, do something exceptional with the design of this display: rather than sandwich an LCD panel between a back case and a front glass, they used the aluminum case itself as the frame for the LCD panel and used the LCD as the front glass."
Remember your whole theory about iFixit debunking substantial weight savings? Turns out iFixit agrees with the OP and not with you.