First Apple killed the headphone jack, followed by the USB and SD card ports. Apple product launches are always A Big Deal, but the releases of the new iPhone 7 and long-awaited MacBook Pro this fall were the subjects of even more attention than usual, not because of what they offered, but because of what they did not.
Apple at this point is well-known for eliminating widely used standards in favor of lesser-known but more advanced ones, sometimes to the chagrin of its customers. There’s a whole list of examples here. In many cases, the reasoning is the same: removing the standard means the company can make stuff that’s smaller, lighter, and consumes less power. But when Apple removed the DVD drive, it didn’t recommend people carry...
via The Verge
