They've done it many times before:

* Original iMac (all-USB, no floppy disk drive)

* MacBook Air (no CD drive)

* MacBook Pro (no Ethernet)

People have gotten used to it each time.

The problem isn't the new port in my opinion, the problem is you only get one of it, and its the only port that can be used for charging as well.

If it had another means of charging or another port (like, say, on the back) I wouldn't mind as much.

iPads and iPhones have one port and it works absolutely fine, despite what all the naysayers said.

It has the same battery life as the iPad you don't need to charge it constantly. Long term things you plug into that port will also tend to charge it.

The original Air had one USB, didn't work out very well.

Didn't work out very well?

The original Air basically created the "ultrabook" market and ended the netbook one. I doubt anyone at Apple is disappointed in it.

The first gen Air was probably the most unusable machine Apple has created since the NeXT acquisition. It also didn't sell well, so it hardly 'created a market'. Only when second gen came out, with much better harddisk, more ports and better chipset, they really took off. The first gen was a good investment into the future by Apple, a testbed to try out new manufacturing technologies and probing the market. I suspect this Macbook could turn out the same, even though it's probably much more usable than the first Air.

No ethernet seems to still be a big painpoint with the people I work with.

And there are other models to choose from, even if you're an Apple diehard. Yes, Apple is incapable of making the perfect machine for your needs at this precise point in time, but it's pretty good for some group of people. I'm in the group of people that will get the MacBook Pro version of this with a stunning array of two USB-C ports.