Come now, no need to get defensive. I love the gorgeous design of my PowerBook, no arguments there. But there's plenty of shortfalls for the 15" PowerBook too... the weight and thickness are ridiculous. There's a myriad of other laptops out there that are much lighter and thinner than the 15"... Sony's X505 came out 3 years ago, and that was half an inch thick. (Granted, not a direct comparison, but just to show what's possible.)
Ridiculous? I'm not being defensive here, but you really must not have looked at most laptops nowadays!
It is essentially impossible to have a
Complete, Professional laptop like a PB/MBP that is any smaller with existing technology.
The Sony X505 and other laptops thinner than approx. 1" lack important features such as internal optical drives, high quality parts (CNet did not like the speakers at all), and can be short on battery life. Also, they might run hot and/or loud due to the smaller form factor.
Also the X505 is actually 0.75in thick at its thickest point, though a bit less than 0.5 at its thinnest. I don't think it is apple style to vary thickness dramatically.