I don't think this is intentional to cut cost. I simply think that the chip was primarily made for devices with one port (iPhone, iPad) and this is a bit of an afterthought.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a future product with 2x USB 3.0 10 Gbps with DisplayPort support on the next generation, A19 Pro or A20 Pro maybe, if the product has enough success.

If they want to get these things into schools it would be insane to expect the schools to also supply everyone with AirPods or some other kind of wireless headphones.

Hey, it took courage to remove that headphone jack.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/07/courage/

It's a mobile CPU. They did not modify it. Mobile devices run with a single USB port.

> Well the costs had to be cut somewhere.

its investment into next generation of loyal apple users, they more likely be selling it at loss.

The second port is likely necessary for USB hubs that rely on both ports. I had one for my M1 Air. I assume it'd still work with the 2 different speeds, but I'd be curious to try it.

I'm going to get a Neo for my wife once it's available in my country.

Since it's just USB and not Thunderbolt, wouldn't it use DisplayPort Alt mode for the display leaving data transfer untouched?

Couldn't one charge from the display connected to?

Both ports support power delivery, so you can still be plugged in and use DisplayPort out.

Not necessarily - you just need a display that has USB-C input and supports USB-PD.

Unless you use a dock, where you plug your things in the dock. Then you would want the "good" one to be the one of the back so it looks more clean and also have easier access to the slow port in the rare case you want to plug something there instead of the fast dock.

At least we should both be happy that it exists, no matter where it is placed! This is a big improvement over the macbook 12 with just one port. This was too low even when using a dock.

IIRC it's because the iPhone chip doesn't have thunderbolt

Thunderbolt would presumably make it much more expensive, the spec has a ton of USB features that go from “optional” to “required” to be able to go into TBT alt mode, like supporting active cables

this new macbook does not have Thunderbolt