There is space for it and they held off for an upgrade path. That's what annoys me, it shouldn't happen on a cutting edge $1,000 device.
I use the speakers anywhere from ~20-30 hours a week so it matters a huge amount to me, I recognize some people never use it but a lot of people do. Some of us are blessed with really nice home offices and fairly large houses and listen to a lot of audiobooks / podcasts where the volume matters. I also do use the speakerphone most of the time for calls at least during the day when I'm home without people around. Carrying it around while I do chores etc. is just a lot nicer and more comfortable vs. AirPods, unless I'm vacuuming or something. If I'm in one of the areas of the house without ambient speakers I'll use it for music playback too sometimes, just for background music not critical listening.
On the rare occasion I work in an office I do use AirPods and like them.
There's a disconnect where people think an obvious downgrade that could be fixed with a sub $10 part that
Apple designed for internally and did not include should be written off just because some people are inconsiderate and use them in public settings where it's inappropriate. I'd never do that, of course.
Apple did the same thing with the iPod Touch 3rd generation (the damn mount was inside) and the original iPad (prototypes had a camera and the held out for a 2nd gen, internals very similar to the Air where there was space but no mount).
I get insulting people or minimizing a downgrade is just justification of their purchase or desire to purchase, and despite that I appreciate the people who have given good descriptions on the difference because I now know the Air is not for me.
Next year assuming they address this, which they probably will given how the internals are laid out, it'll be between the Air and Fold, which will depend on how much business travel I need to do. I love the Air's form factor and look forward to eventually getting it, and certainly for the people that
never or rarely use the speakers it's a good device, but Analytics e.g. from Marco Arment directly via overcast proved that an absolutely enormous amount of people do use speakers a lot, like medium double-digits if I remember correctly.
One other consideration is that AI Voice interaction is becoming very good especially if you don't use ChatGPT where it's a downgraded model. Some other providers offer the full functionality and interacting with voice while your hands are full or you're doing something else really does feel more like the "living in the future" use case we were promised. Once again, not something to do in public of course.
But, perhaps the most important thing: the dogs genuinely like hearing family on the phone
.
None of this takes away from your enjoyment of the device, but it is worth pointing out for people that are on the fence or might care. The best thing for those people to do is buy one and try it, or just wait since it's obviously coming in a year or two.
