One glass of water on the desk (not in the machine!). Capillary action sucked water around the seal on the base. It was turned over to remove the battery and the sucked up water rained on the logic board resulting in all sorts of crackling, smoke etc and one dead MacBook.
Being a qualified and experienced EE, I'm qualified to say that it's electronics 101 to be able to isolate power (like every other vendor allows).
Your knowledge may be obscuring the bigger picture here. I suspect the general public wouldn't behave the way you would - the only spill I've ever seen resulted in the user turning the machine over and furiously shaking it. That this is the only spill I've seen in 16 odd years of being around laptops and using laptops suggests to me that for a company like Apple optimising for spills wouldn't be a priority.
A company like apple optimises for good looks. We all knew that and we have proof since Antennagate; don't try to deny that.
After breaking my second laptop with fluids (first was ruined with coffee; second with it standing in water, which was rain accumulated in my not properly closed "watertight" bag) I started buying Thinkpads. They have specially designed "Fluid drains". Because all laptop manufacturors know that spills are one of the highest death-causes for laptops. http://youtu.be/d7cvi00OZDM
The keyboard and speaker holes are sealed with some kind of rubber plate, which is glued on the case. Therefore it takes some time for liquids to enter the casing. When turning the MB directly upside down, there should happen nothing.
But as always, you shouldn't place your drinks directly to all kind of electronic stuff. It's common sense.
However, there is no excuse not to design something with safety in mind.
If you look at the base, the edge rim of it is where it seeped in and sat in the curved section like a pool when oriented normally. There was at least 10ml of water which had been sucked off the table via that rim. The logical step is "isolate power". Any movement of the device resulted in the water spilling onto the logic board.
One glass of water on the desk (not in the machine!). Capillary action sucked water around the seal on the base. It was turned over to remove the battery and the sucked up water rained on the logic board resulting in all sorts of crackling, smoke etc and one dead MacBook.
Being a qualified and experienced EE, I'm qualified to say that it's electronics 101 to be able to isolate power (like every other vendor allows).