The keyboard has depth from mechanical linkages, sensors, and a frame to mount everything on. It's also recessed so it doesn't touch the screen when closed. See a teardown for the exact details. Since the keyboard can't be made any thinner, the only way to add more ports would be to make the laptop wider or thicker. Neither is going to happen.
Then how do they have the port on the left hand side ?
What I am saying is, the laptop (and the keyboard) are symmetrical left to right ... so if they can squeeze the port in on the left side, they should be able to squeeze an identical port in on the right side.
Re:The increasingly long lives of old Macs
by ggreer on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @01:20AM
(#10077701)
The headphone port is on the right. With the current form factor, there isn't room for both a headphone port and a USB-C port on one side. I said as much originally:
> Adding another USB-C port would require sacrificing the headphone jack.
Have you seen a MacBook in person? As soon as I did, I found this quite apparent.
The keyboard appears to abut both sides equally ... so while there may be an internal component in the current iteration that takes up internal space, it's not the external footprint of the keyboard that is determining port or no-port.
Perhaps I am missing something ? Genuinely curious...