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Comment by dkarl | Hacker News Reader

I think iPhones have for a long time been designed with the assumption that every user will add a case.

That's funny... I specifically don't use a case with my iPhone because I feel they have been designed as they are to work without a case.

I fee like if Apple truly didn’t believe they needed a case, they wouldn’t make and sell them.

So if everybody is going to use a case anyway, why isn't the functionality of the case just built into the phone? This applies not just to apple by the way. I've never understood this.

Personalization. People love to express themselves with different cases and having the device even a several mm thicker would make most of the customers look at in disgust, because then with the personalized cases it would by huge. And trust me, outside of tech community, no one wants thick phones.

I'd much rather an external 3rd party case. When my $20 case gets worn or damaged I can spend $20 on a new one.

If that was built into the phone it would be much more expensive to replace, and I'd end up just putting another, slightly bigger $20 case around it to prevent that from happening.

If Apple believed the iphone required a separate case, they would build the iphone like a raspberry pi so users can build their own lego case :). Or build the iphone with plastic because it's cheap and light instead of metal and glass.

Iirc, many years ago Apple noticed the majority of customers liked cases (due to things like personalization as well as safety), and started designing iPhones with cases in mind. They're still meant to be pretty when naked, but I believe majority of people are using cases. This is why things like the camera bump have made an appearance but are really not an issue, since cases flatten those lines out.

I wish I could use it without a case but the thing is so damn slippery without one. Slides out of my pocket or around when sitting on the couch and it's on a slight incline.

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