I just want a MacBook Air with a cellular modem built in. Is that so hard to do, Apple? Maybe they don't think enough customers will use it. So add an extra USB port and provide a dongle.
I understand the desire, but there are a number of things that are acting against Apple doing this:
How many new sales will this drive?
How many people already have a smartphone that the laptop can be "tethered" to for a network connection?
How many iPhones are used for tethering an Apple laptop?
What are the engineering and design decisions required to include the modem?
Apple will make more money by selling an iPhone to go with the laptop (which, let's be honest, most people are going to do anyway), they won't have to measure the impact on battery life or obtain a different wireless chipset that includes cellular functionality, and there is very little demand from their customer base for this option.
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Apple will make more money by selling an iPhone to go with the laptop (which, let's be honest, most people are going to do anyway), they won't have to measure the impact on battery life or obtain a different wireless chipset that includes cellular functionality, and there is very little demand from their customer base for this option.