Yesterday we talked a little about the hardware inside the new iPod touch, and how Apple had elected to construct the handset without an ambient light sensor, as had been present in previous generations of the model. Based on your comments, a lot of you sounded quite upset that Apple would remove such a cheap, useful component from the device. What could it have been thinking? Well, today we get to see a response Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller apparently sent to one user, giving him an explanation for the missing sensor.

The way Schiller tells it, the current-gen iPod touch lacks an ambient light sensor because the model is simply too thin to accommodate one.

Now sure, the iPod touch is a fantastically thin 6.1 millimeters, but there was still plenty of room for a main camera, a front-facer, and a flash; surely there must have been somewhere to squeeze-in a photodiode. After all, they’re not exactly bulky components, and even if it came down to making the iPod touch 6.2 millimeters thick, instead, would users even care?

Assuming we buy Apple’s explanation, do you think it made a bad call here? Are you willing to start sacrificing features for thin devices?

Source: Apple
Via: 9to5 Mac