Consumer electronics as a whole has been driving toward ever smaller devices to do the same tasks for some time now. My 4 year old eMachine laptop with the 15in screen that I just gave to a college student is 2.5 inches thick and weighs 8 pounds. But it is very easy to open and work on. My current "no name" laptop with the 17 in screen is 1.5in thick, and weighs about 5.5 pounds. It is much more capable, much more portable, and significantly harder to access the internals on. Now that's a bit apples to oranges, but I can make similar Apples to Apples comparisons with like-aged iBooks and MacBooks. It's also the case with my personal lineage of cell phones, TVs, etc...
Form factor is more than portability. It'a also serviceability and if the market demands smaller, they will end up with tougher to service as a side effect.
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