1. Maybe headphones 2. Maybe charging (but usually not as battery life has increased so much)
An engineer or pro-sumer might be sad they can't have 3 items plugged in at once, but I think Apple sees what I see in that weight and battery life are more important than number of ports.
With this in mind, she'd also want to charge and a single port is dreadful for that. She's no programmer, not even close to technically inclined. Just a normal student studying to become a teacher.
A teacher would want a laptop lightweight like this, but when they need to plug in a mouse, maybe a printer? plug it into the projector, into the power because they're low on battery, possibly plug in a usb dongle for a powerpoint remote control...
Well, that's a bit more than a single port (Albeit, obviously personalized for a single type of job).
Multiple ports are much more important than you're giving them credit for. If it's around the end of day at that coffee shop, some of those people might be plugging their phone into their laptop, too.
I hate the idea that a single-purpose (or dual-purpose if you get a keyboard and mouse with one receiver) dongle is needed when my computer has perfectly good wireless technology already built in.
I have the same dilemma as the parent with my macbook pro. I have two USB ports - and three things I'd like to plug in: wired mouse, fitbit dongle, and a yubikey. The mouse and yubikey are mandatory so I sacrificed using the fitbit dongle versus requiring lugging around a USB hub everywhere.
If you just need USB 2.0, you can get something tiny like this to carry: http://www.amazon.com/Cute-USB-2-Port-Splitter-Black/dp/B00F...
That's missing the point. It isn't supposed to. Similar to how a lot of folks complained that they absolutely needed a DVD drive when the first MacBook Air came out. I'm sure some did, most simply did not, which is why laptops trended with the Air and got smaller and dropped the drive.
Most of the Apple ones are Bluetooth nowadays. The main issue is that you now have two things with battery lives instead of just one, but other than that, it might be a viable solution here.
Also, I believe Microsoft and Logitech make Bluetooth mice.
(The track pad is very good.)
The review specifically talks about the disappointing battery life. If Apple cared about battery life, they would have opted to use their fancy stacked battery to give the 13 inch even better battery life. As it stands, Apple's own webpage lists the Macbook's battery life as worse than the 13, and this review has it not even meeting those expectations (a departure from most recent Apple products which have fared quite well in battery life tests). So I think you're going to be seeing lots of charging with this thing. Apple seems to now have made their intentions clear: thinner at all costs, even battery life.
It's obvious, but worth stating that Apple still offers two other lines of laptops that are more appropriate for people who need more ports. Not to mention that there's a USB-C breakout cable available (at a price).
My guess is the reason Apple hasn't got much into Bluetooth is the clumsy pairing process isn't apple-y. Sony has some fun stuff using NFC tags to make pairing smooth, so I could see Apple talking that approach prime-time.
I could imagine a nice matched phone and BT headset and a little inductive charging-plate for the both.
The keyboard, mouse and trackpad that Apple bundles/sells with their desktops are all Bluetooth, so it's not like they have an aversion to it (and all things told, they've made the process about as painless as possible, sans anything NFC-like).
Obviously yes, people out and about use fewer peripherals. But many people use their laptop as their primary machine, and when they're at home they want some way to back up that laptop; backup their phone; connect their various other gadgets.
San Francisco might have great Internet (which helps with most of this stuff) but many people have really Internet connections and they need the cable or they risk multiple failed transfers of data and the corruption that sometimes results.
* Logitech receiver for my (wireless trackball) mouse. * Speakers * Power * USB hub
When I'm on the go, replace speakers with headphones, and USB hub with a flash drive.
Not to mention that, if they see battery life so important, why does this have so disappointing battery life?
* Two monitors * Mouse * Keyboard * Speakers * A/C power
Now, I don't carry most of those things to the coffeeshop with me, sure. But what percentage of a laptop's use is in coffeeshops, versus at home or the office? I understand that tradeoff is at different places for different people. But one port feels like it's trading off way too much utility -- exactly how much space does a second USB port take up?