[lnanek2]

The old cylindrical mac pros had a similar trick where the case had a magnet in it and the computer itself had a detector for it. So if you ever wanted to turn it on without the case to see the diagnostic lights, you had to know where to put a magnet to fool the sensor.

[ocdtrekkie]

This is an exceptionally overpriced way to do it: Dell PCs tend to just have a little push switch that's depressed when the case side panel is on. (For a corporate environment, these are also very helpful for tamper protection, of course.)

[renzo88]

The key difference is that apple cares what their computers look like when they're open. Dell doesn't. An ugly switch would ruin the line of the Mac's case and look out of place.

Now, you may disagree with that philosophy, but Apple is wildly successful for it. Personally, I don't like Macs anymore, but I do absolutely respect that attitude.