Yesterday we emphasized the lack of an ambient light sensor in the 5th generation iPod touch after initially highlighting the omission in our iPod touch 5th gen review.

Now a reader claims to have emailed Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, and received a response explaining the drop of the sensor. The reason for the omission? It’s just too thin.

Here is the purported email from Schiller. While it would be impossible to 100% prove the legitimacy of such an email, Apple’s executives have been known to respond to emails, and the explanation isn’t exactly far fetched. Judge for yourselves.