I hope other manufacturers pick up on this and just make their devices thick enough overall to match the camera bulge, with a huge bonus in battery capacity.

Phone cases fix the bulge.

And, isn't it true that phone cases are pretty much a necessity? I remember I took my iphone case off a few a months ago... and just a week or two in, the screen shattered when I dropped it on the concrete floor outside as I was stepping outside the car.

Phone cases have a certain thickness (which is more or less equal to the thickness of bulge). In all likelihood, you'll have the case, so the bulge is perhaps not really a problem.

I hate cases, is like people covering their car seats.

I like using them the way they were designed.

I think we can chalk up this sort of thing happening once in, what, a decade(?) to an honest mistake.

No! It turns out this is something they have a history of doing!

https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/16/6209759/apple-has-an-emba...

In the exact same way! I'm very surprised, I did not think Apple of all companies would deliberately do such a thing.

From the shot it looks like it's a complete side view so should be visible.

In reality it's probably that the camera is positioned just right so that it's obscured.

They did the same thing when they made the iMacs skinny, just show them at the exact angle to hide the giant butt on them and make them look razor thin.