Okay. Here's some speculation.

"Why can’t you plug the Lightning headphones that come in the iPhone box into the new Mac?"

The decision for Apple to remove the 3.5mm jack on the iPhone 7 has been discussed at length elsewhere. Another way to look at this is that Apple included a pair of headphones that you can use with the iPhone now, rather than wait to buy a dongle for your existing headphones or wait to buy headphones from another manufacturer.

"Why doesn’t the iPhone come with the right cable for the new MacBook Pro?"

There's always a period of transition when ports and connectors change. I suspect within the next year iPhones will come with USB C to Lightning cables. You'll likely have to buy a new cable or an adapter to charge your phone from your new MacBook Pro.

"Why doesn’t Apple make a screen that properly works with its own devices?"

It looks like Apple is getting out of the monitor business entirely.

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/28/apple-out-of-display-bus...

On balance, it's likely not as profitable as other areas. People may not be as willing to pay a premium for Apple's displays. Others may be good enough.

I'm not sure what "properly works" is getting at. I'm not curious enough to take a look, though I don't deny some may exist. I can't recall ever having an issue with any Apple monitor I've used (I believe I've used at least 4), other than mounting the monitors on an arm using a VESA adapter. That's been a pain. I don't get the impression that's what the author is alluding to, however.

"Why did Apple highlight how great the Touch Bar is for Messaging, but didn’t even port most of the new iMessage features to macOS properly?"

I thought Thursday's Hello Again event was one of the most poorly executed presentations I've seen from Apple. I found some of the demos of the Touch Bar during the presentation silly, particularly the text suggestion portions. I'm able to separate the presentation from how I view the hardware. I find the current keyboard commands and suggestions works fine for that. I do think the Touch Bar will be useful for custom keys with good contextual awareness. And I think there's a lot of potential for other uses we haven't thought of yet. Most of us haven't had the opportunity to try it out. I actively use the ESC key as well has the hardware volume and brightness keys. I trust I'll figure something out. After all, I didn't have the volume and brightness keys until they were introduced.

I'm not familiar with the new iMessage features that the author is referring to (I'm still running Yosemite), though I'm happy to grant they exist. One of the benefits of software is that it can continue to be improved and updated at a much faster rate than the hardware. Also, Apple, like any other large company, has multiple teams. Tradeoffs need to be made to actually ship. Ideally everything would be perfectly developed and bug free. I think most of us can agree that's not realistic, however. We do the best we can.

"Do I have to carry two pairs of headphones now?"

Assuming this question is based on the iPhone 7 having only a Lightning port, and the new MacBook Pros having only a 3.5mm audio port and USB-C ports. If you're using headphones with a cable, then you can use an adapter for one or the other. You don't necessarily need two pair of headphones. Wireless headphones are also an option.

"How do I charge my Lightning cable mouse?"

With a USB-C to Lightning cable, just like you likely currently use a USB-A to Lightning cable. Yup. You'll likely have to buy a new cable or an adapter.

"Why remove the HDMI port, a standard that’s still incredibly popular for plugging into TVs?"

The HDMI port is thicker than the USB C port, and is a single purpose cable. Many current laptops do not have an HDMI port.

"Why remove the SD card, a popular slot for… creatives using cameras?"

A large number of users may not need an SD card slot. Removing a slot that a perhaps majority of users don't allows them to simplify the design, make room for more ports, and perhaps make the laptop smaller.

I used CompactFlash for a number of years. I never had a computer that had a CompactFlash slot built in. Indeed, when I was transferring data from the cards to my machine, I often wanted multiple drives, not just a single slot. I probably would have used a slot if one was available. I got by with a separate card reader. Now that I think of it, that card reader was either FW400 or FW800. Times have changed!

Looking back over these, I think this is a list of reasons that could be used to guide the decisions.

- Ports and connectors change, and there's going to be a period of transition where existing hardware doesn't match. You'll sometimes need adapters and new cables. (Maybe Apple should provide new adapters and cables for free?) Also, I think there's benefit to having a single port/connector type rather than a number of different incompatible types.

- Sometimes technologies become obsolete.

- Software and hardware can ship on different schedules.

- To ship, you need to make tradeoffs on what needs to be completed and what is acceptable to ship in an incomplete state.

Set aside for a moment whether or not you agree with these. Do you think these are reasonable? Fair? If you don't, why aren't they reasonable? Remember, these are speculation, though I have tried to make them as reasonable as I can in a half-hour or so.