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Will the future of Apple notebooks come without optical drives?

F

FloridaMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
I've talked to a couple of people who seem to think that in the near future none of Apple's notebooks will have them. What do y'all think?
 
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The MBP will see one more refresh this year, and then beginning in Q1/Q2, we'll see a redesign, removing the optical drive.
 
After Apple introduced the MBA and eliminated the CDD, I thought that it was inevitable that the CD/DVD drive was becoming obsolete. Apple has put the OS on a thumb drive and it seems like a good move. Whether you fill that space with another HD/SDD or Apple streamlines the design is a move forward. I like delivering images to my clients by DVD but can adapt if needed. Isn't that why Good came up with FTP?
 
quite a few threads on this.

maybe not in the next update/refresh but imo it's likely at some point in the future.
 
If they do, they better put in a blade SSD(in addition to the full-size 2.5", a 1TB HDD and 100GB+ blade would be BAMF), increase the battery capacity by ~50%, and a dedicates GPU in the 13". If they kill it just to encourage app downloads, then that really sucks; they should keep the same form factor and make use of all the new space, and DO NOT ditch the Ethernet port if they keep calling it a Pro.
 
honestly i can do w/o an optical drive although i prefer it in there, but a mb pro without an ethernet port or a drive in it will encourage me to not buy any newer models.
 
Yes, there are already tons of PCs going without optical drives, and I think they have just become less relevant in recent years. The only time I use my optical drive now is if I want to either watch/rip a DVD to my computer, or am installing something like Microsoft office.

Everything that used to come on a CD/DVD is transitioning into digital, slowly but surely, and I think within 2 years the mac line will come without optical drives like the macbook air. I would welcome it, because maybe they could use that space for an enhanced battery or something, you never can get enough battery life 🙄
 
FloridaMac said:
I've talked to a couple of people who seem to think that in the near future none of Apple's notebooks will have them. What do y'all think?
Click to expand...

Apple is moving that way.

Pity, some Mac Mini owners use the optical drive to play DVDs and, let's face it, Logic Studio, Adobe, and other content creation programs use the optical drive. Apple's removing it yet not lowering the price = shrouded money grab and broadband is still comparatively expensive to be able to do 4GB downloads all the time.

Apple... said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

The MBP will see one more refresh this year, and then beginning in Q1/Q2, we'll see a redesign, removing the optical drive.
Click to expand...

It will see a refresh this year? And it is a fact and not a rumor? (Q1 2012 makes sense. Q3/Q4 2011 does not. There aren't newer CPUs or anything, like the 2009 refresh...)
 
tcphoto said:
After Apple introduced the MBA and eliminated the CDD, I thought that it was inevitable that the CD/DVD drive was becoming obsolete. Apple has put the OS on a thumb drive and it seems like a good move. Whether you fill that space with another HD/SDD or Apple streamlines the design is a move forward. I like delivering images to my clients by DVD but can adapt if needed. Isn't that why Good came up with FTP?
Click to expand...

Overall, I agree.

But what strikes me odd is the lack of price drop. Why wouldn't this cost-saving measure be passed down to the customer?
 
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thermodynamic said:
FloridaMac said:
I've talked to a couple of people who seem to think that in the near future none of Apple's notebooks will have them. What do y'all think?
Click to expand...

Apple is moving that way.

Pity, some Mac Mini owners use the optical drive to play DVDs and, let's face it, Logic Studio, Adobe, and other content creation programs use the optical drive. Apple's removing it yet not lowering the price = shrouded money grab and broadband is still comparatively expensive to be able to do 4GB downloads all the time.

Apple... said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

The MBP will see one more refresh this year, and then beginning in Q1/Q2, we'll see a redesign, removing the optical drive.
Click to expand...

It will see a refresh this year? And it is a fact and not a rumor? (Q1 2012 makes sense. Q3/Q4 2011 does not. There aren't newer CPUs or anything, like the 2009 refresh...)
Click to expand...

So they couldn't do anything for a refresh? If that's the case, then yeah, hello Q1.
 
Apple is clearly transitioning away from optical drives.

Next MBP refresh will be a significant redesign with Ivy Bridge and no optical drive.

The Panther Point chipset has native USB 3.0 and has Intel SRT for seamless ssd caching.
 
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