Gimmics and price hikes
It just hit me. I had a ThinkPad from about year 2006 had a touch sensitive control strip above the keyboard just like that! The stupid thing began to wear out and it was near impossible to use.
I think people in the future will look at this one as a awkward departure from their design path. That strip actually makes it less elegant and more clunky in design aesthetics. Or in other words, it looks to me like a gimmick. In essence we've had usable features(missing SD card port?) traded out for a keyboard gimmick at an unreasonable price increase to shore up sagging profit figures.
(just my unreasonable 2 cents worth)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
