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Why does apple still sell combo drive !!

rpaloalto

rpaloalto

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I have spent the last 2 years, C🙁 onvincing my sister to buy a mac. Well she and her husband just bought the 999.99 i mac. Great right, wrong there are very disappointed to learn that they wont be able to burn dvds with out a costly upgrade or a cumbersome external burner. I know it's there own fault for not paying attention to what they were buying, But common a drive on a thousand dollar desktop that only supports cd-r. This is the year 2007 apple shame on you .
 
Um, no, shame on them for not reading the specs.

And you'll find that there are still many computers that don't come with DVD burners. A lot of people simply don't need that capability.
 
i fail to see how a drive for a desktop computer is cumbersome. it doesn't take up that much space, and the external DVD drives are much faster than the internal iMac superdrive anyway. To be honest, i would have gotten the combo drive and an external DVD-RW drive as well.
 
well

I know it is their fault for not paying closer attention to their investment, But it is actually pretty hard to find a new p.c. with out dvdr you actually have to hunt one down.
 
rpaloalto said:
I know it is their fault for not paying closer attention to their investment, But it is actually pretty hard to find a new p.c. with out dvdr you actually have to hunt one down.
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I just went to Dell's website and in 30 seconds found a computer without a DVD burner. In fact, that computer didn't even have a CD burner, just a DVD-ROM.
 
RP--

YG17 beat me to it--but there are LOTS of PCs out there with just DVD-ROM or combo drives.

Best,

Bob
 
if it helps apple sell the low end model of the imac/macbook/mac mini for cheaper by selling the combo and not the super drive, then i'm all for that. not everybody needs (or wants) dvd burning.
 
I've never burned a DVD in my life. I wanted a DVD burner "just in case," but I don't think everyone should have to pay for one. Optional is good.

(And I just a few days ago config'd Dell's top-of-line tower in their Small Business section. It lacked a DVD burner unless you chose an upgrade.)

They made a mistake--and I sympathize with their frustration, but they could easily have made the SAME mistake buying from any company. (In fact, Apple store and BTO options are presented MUCH more simply and easily than at other sites--especially the nightmarish Dell.com.)
 
Actually I agree with the original poster somewhat. Apple's bundling strategy can drive you crazy, trying to figure out how much you have to spend to get, for example, a decent video card or screen or dvd-r with your computer. But its up to the purchaser of course to make sure they understand each bundle.

Anyway, this is easily solved. Return the iMac and get the Mac Mini with the superdrive and an external monitor and keyboard. You'll probably get a larger monitor anyway if you go 3rd-party.
 
tristan said:
Anyway, this is easily solved. Return the iMac and get the Mac Mini with the superdrive and an external monitor and keyboard. You'll probably get a larger monitor anyway if you go 3rd-party.
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not to mention a much slower computer with a much smaller hard drive. part of the imac's charm is the all-in-one package. and at this point, anything is a much better buy than a mac mini.
 
Actually, I think there's a wee hint of zealotry entering this thread. In the UK, I can't find any consumer machines anywhere near the price point of the 'entry level' iMac without a DVD±RW drive... Sure, there are some machines from most manufacturers without, but none with Core 2 Duo CPUs and none at more than about half the price of the iMac.
 
Scarlet Fever said:
i fail to see how a drive for a desktop computer is cumbersome. it doesn't take up that much space, and the external DVD drives are much faster than the internal iMac superdrive anyway. To be honest, i would have gotten the combo drive and an external DVD-RW drive as well.
Click to expand...

That kind of defeats the object of the beautiful, all-in-one iMac, doesn't it? Many people buy it because it is so simple - you can have it do everything the typical consumer needs with nothing but a power cord attached.

I appreciate that not everyone needs them, but DVD writers are really, really cheap and Apple famously "don't do" lowest-common-denominator machines. They also advertise their machines on how good they are for easy multimedia, including burning DVDs - exactly the area in which a Mac is meant to "just work" for the sort of people who are not very savvy at looking through tech-specs etc.


.
 
I had this problem 2 years ago when my parents bought the kids their eMac. We exchanged it the day after Christmas - they assumed that all Macs had DVD burners at that point.

The entry iMac is like the eMac - aimed at the educational Market, so that is another reason they don't have DVD burners. I wouldn't buy the cheapest one at the moment - the "upgrades" are worth the next model up:

more RAM (512 worth)
Super Drive vs Combo Drive
Graphics card vs on board GPU

That to *me* is worth the $200 (and my Homeschool price for it is just $1099). Kids are getting one when Leopard ships.
 
rpaloalto said:
I have spent the last 2 years, C🙁 onvincing my sister to buy a mac. Well she and her husband just bought the 999.99 i mac. Great right, wrong there are very disappointed to learn that they wont be able to burn dvds with out a costly upgrade or a cumbersome external burner. I know it's there own fault for not paying attention to what they were buying, But common a drive on a thousand dollar desktop that only supports cd-r. This is the year 2007 apple shame on you .
Click to expand...

year 2007 doesn't mean everybody is rich, not that far yet. 😉
 
I agree with the OP. To not include a superdrive on a $1000 machine, especially with Apple's consumer focus on iLife is sort of ridiculous. You'd be hard pressed to find a PC in the real world at a big box retailer for $1000 w/o a dvd-burner. This, and Apple's mediocre ram offerings are a little annoying. 512mb of ram is the absolute minimum to run Tiger, then Apple has the audacity to have 2x256 in their low end consumer models which is a joke. The difference in price between that and a single 512 module is negligible at best.
 
Do we have to dumb down everything for everyone, come on.

Even if you feel Apple SHOULD include a super drive on a 1k computer, its not their fault that you did not read the specs of the machine before hand.

Its not like a hidden secret that on the LOW END model there is NO superdrive.
 
BigPrince said:
Do we have to dumb down everything for everyone, come on.

Even if you feel Apple SHOULD include a super drive on a 1k computer, its not their fault that you did not read the specs of the machine before hand.

Its not like a hidden secret that on the LOW END model there is NO superdrive.
Click to expand...

You're assuming that everyone understands all these tech specs. Most of the people I have switched are not particularly computer literate, but are excited by the idea of easily editing their movies and so on. Without me to hold their hand they would would just have gone for the cheaper model, because they have no idea what they need, or why they need it.

Since Apple are marketing their computers as an easy, fun way of getting into multimedia, all their consumer models should be fully capable of running all of iLife out of the box - it's their flagship software package, for goodness' sake!


(NB: I excuse the ultra-cheap education-only model from this for obvious reasons.)


.
 
Mr Skills said:
You're assuming that everyone understands all these tech specs.

snip
Click to expand...

If your going to be spending a lot of money, then IMO you should be doing product research and making sure the product meets your needs.

However, I do agree that "Combo" and "Superdrive" are not the most descriptive names showing what each drive can do.

I know that when I buy things I do research, read reviews, and ask for peoples opinions.
 
I am an IT guy that doesn't have or want an internal DVD burner in my laptop. CD format is the defacto standard for quickly sharing files now. The larger formats are in too much flux for me to want to be locked into with my system.

I am fine with lugging around a DVD burner if I need it, or do my DVD burns t home. Besides, it saved me some money on buying my system to put into better things like Memory, and a BlueTooth Mouse 😉 .
 
apple still uses combo drives in the lower end of some models to keep costs down for themselves and the consumers buying combo drive systems.
 
yg17 said:
I just went to Dell's website and in 30 seconds found a computer without a DVD burner. In fact, that computer didn't even have a CD burner, just a DVD-ROM.
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There are machines on Dell's site that have just a CD-ROM, or even no optical standard.

Azurael said:
Actually, I think there's a wee hint of zealotry entering this thread. In the UK, I can't find any consumer machines anywhere near the price point of the 'entry level' iMac without a DVD±RW drive... Sure, there are some machines from most manufacturers without, but none with Core 2 Duo CPUs and none at more than about half the price of the iMac.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Apple is selling a premium product and should really be selling DVD-R drives with all machines at this point.

840quadra said:
I am an IT guy that doesn't have or want an internal DVD burner in my laptop. CD format is the defacto standard for quickly sharing files now. The larger formats are in too much flux for me to want to be locked into with my system.

I am fine with lugging around a DVD burner if I need it, or do my DVD burns t home. Besides, it saved me some money on buying my system to put into better things like Memory, and a BlueTooth Mouse 😉 .
Click to expand...

What are you talking about?
1) There's not a DVD-R drive in the world that won't burn CD's too, so there's no trouble there...
2) There's no "flux" in the DVD media market now. There's two formats, +R and -R, just like there have been for ages. No one won that "format war", we all just have dual format burners. Pretty much any DVD drive that still functions will read DVD-R (there are a FEW exceptions, but they are few and far between).
3) DVD burners add about $15 retail to the price of a system (slim combo drives are ~$40, DVD-RW about $55). What are you adding to your system for $15 that you couldn't have if you sprung for the DVD-R?

There's absolutely NO reason not to get a DVD burner at this point. None. They are cheap, flexible, and standardized. Your logic astounds me.

apple still uses combo drives in the lower end of some models to keep costs down for themselves and the consumers buying combo drive systems.
Click to expand...
See above. The difference is $15 RETAIL. Apple price is probably less than $10 different. They still use Combo drives JUST to get you to upgrade to a higher model that has a bunch of other upgrades you probably didn't want anyways. It's just marketing. That's it. There is no other reason.
 
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