1. keyboard in the front edge is the worst idea. Imagine you are typing the book while it is on your lap (that's why they call it laptop
). How would you stabilize the book, when your impositions of hands is not holding the book? A Sony laptop was released this way and everyone complained about the book literally falling off the lap while typing..
2. What would be the benefit if the speakers would be up there? And a plug
on the keyboard area is pretty weird. How would you use the lid-closed mode with an optical cable plugged?? Nahhhh, no good idea!
3. It's not like the tackpad is wasting the whole space under itself. The trackpad is just reserving a little tiny area and won't free
any space, if you skip it. But without the trackpad, what would be your pointing device?
4. Ahhh, now we have the idea about the pointing device. You should remember that a laptop should be mobile. I don't want to have a bunch of devices with myself, like mouse, keyboard, CD/DVD rom... I want it all to be included so I really just need to pick the book and that's it.
Conclusion: Apple is doing perfect job with their books.