Is there any sort of industrial designer, hardware engineer, or whatever job title is responsible for making physical product designs like this that could explain why they’ve done this repeatedly.
In the surface this seems super dumb, but I expect that one of the most successful companies on the planet hires people who have at least an inkling of what they are doing.
What is the trade off here that I am missing that makes this a choice they’ve made multiple times?
They do not want you to use the mouse while it is plugged in. They didn’t want the mouse to be seen as a wired device at all. The mouse hasn’t been redesigned since it came out 15 years ago, when wireless mice were somewhat uncommon
I always thought they didn’t want people keeping it wired because Apple always made an effort to minimize cables around their hardware…
…But then I read a good additional reason, which is that the mouse movement during use would quickly deteriorate the socket and maybe the cable, because they’re not designed for that kind of workload.
I guess they could have created a new type of connector… but then a non standard plug would have other negative consequences (higher cost, having to stock and sell replacements, etc.)
I think it was probably drawn on a piece of paper by someone way to high up to argue with. Then the people responsible for implementing the idea just had to go with it.
In the surface this seems super dumb, but I expect that one of the most successful companies on the planet hires people who have at least an inkling of what they are doing.
What is the trade off here that I am missing that makes this a choice they’ve made multiple times?