Either the retina Macbook has not given Apple good enough margin (or lower cost components), or Apple sees that the market is not ready yet in ditching ports. Keeping the old Macbook Air is cheaper than doing yet a new design that goes against their vision.
When I purchased mine, cost & better battery life vs. the 13" Pros were absolutely two key drivers for me. I forget if, at the time, the Air had more ports - I believe it did, key of which was the slot for adding a card for doubling my storage capacity from 128 to 256 and at a fraction of what Apple soaks you over for a larger SSD.
For what I need to do away from home, the lower-res screen was absolutely acceptable if it resulted in a bit more battery life. And there's always the larger hi-res screen at home for those times more real estate & better resolution can help.
Not every customer needs the thinnest, fastest, bestest, most minimalist. If only today's Apple execs & supposed "design geniuses" understood this like Steve did.
Steve Jobs and the MacBook Air had one thing in common and that was innovation.
The same cannot be said of Apple these days.
I might edit that to say "useful innovation." I'll give Apple or anyone a pass if innovation in a certain area slows down because after a while, you can make a wheel only so round, you can invent only so many innovative musical instruments that stand the test of time, you can pluck only so many low-hanging-fruit in a certain technology area. Then, if unchecked, "innovation" starts morphing into inventions for the sake of inventions (Apple Watch, IMHO) and change for the sake of change start to turn into virtual caricatures of prior good taste (iOS7, removed ports, removed headphone jacks, removed magsafe, mechatronic trackpad feedback, removed function keys, removed home button, etc.).
So I'd agree with "Innovation" if you mean "Useful Innovation" but also "Design Priorities that are robust, well-rounded, and customer-use-first (not fashion-first)."
