There are other manufacturers who will provide all of those dead technologies to you if you'd like. I haven't had a DVD player connected to my TV since the early to mid 2000's. I owned a Blu-Ray player for about 2 weeks, only for the internet connectivity. I got rid of that useless antique as soon as I confirmed it was wasting space and electricity at my house. As far as I'm concerned, Apple was behind me on that one.
I personally do not see these technologies as dead just because someone chooses not to use them. DVD's and Blu-rays are still completely current for film. I am into film and for a bit my television and Blu-ray player worked fine, however I may have to just use my computer for a time and I need it to be my complete entertainment system. Of course I am aware that those using their computers as their entire entertainment center is not the norm.
In the 2 1/2 years that I've owned an iPad, and the 3 1/2 years that I've owned an iPhone I can count on one hand how many times I haven't been able to see something because of the lack of flash. And in every instance the content provider was worse off than me for my not being able to view it. So their loss, not mine.
I have had my iPhone for about three years and most of the time it is not an issue, however there is likely a few dozen times something would not play because of flash. No great love for flash, I simply wish to view whatever content I want.
As far as the price of movies being too expensive, I agree that the content providers continue to use whatever means possible to prop up a business model that's no longer valid. The movie industry is being dragged kicking and screaming into the reality that the music industry, and the print and network news industries have learned over the years: The golden goose is sick and dying. The market for $20 million per movie actors is going the way of the albatross. In the meantime, I would rather pay $19.99 for a digital movie than for a DVD.
I cannot even justify twenty dollars for a Blu-ray let alone a DVD or digital copy. Basically a compressed edition of the movie one cannot sell, trade or give away, play anywhere they want and is far too expensive. A digital download would likely have to be five dollars and 1080P for me to even look at it, and be newer movies. (And we know that will never happen) This was just said to state what page I am on when it comes to prices and digital downloads. I am far too used to getting much more for my money.
Netflix is good for what they do have, some worry about content going missing, right now I am rather meh about that. Okay it goes missing for awhile, life goes on. Spend several hundred dollars on a few shows or just use Netflix right now? I will go with the streaming for now.
The only thing that I wish Apple would make happen on the movie side is getting rid of the stupid rule of having to watch a movie within 24 hours of pressing play. Again, however, this is the fault of the content providers. Their greed is also the reason why they've declared a behind-the-scenes war on Netflix, another true innovator who revolutionized an industry, and would be doing it again, if the studios didn't have a target on their back. However, this subject is largely a discussion for another day.
I like Netflix and which more companies would work with them, get newer content, more shows etc... I know what is not always up to them, these studious are far to picky and want everything to stay the same.
Steam, that is a well done business, however I will not pay more then twenty dollars for a game in any format let alone digital. Dozens of games have been five to ten dollars. I do not care if I own a disk for that. Ease of use is well done.
The mindless claptrap about how this verdict is going to stifle innovation is just BS.
I am curious what it could mean for other companies. I am curious where we would be if Apple had not done what they have over the last few years. Even if other companies have made something better they thought of it AFTER Apple did it.
The rest of the industry tried to sell us those POS called netbooks. Apple said no, those things "don't do anything well."
They were so much cheaper which is what a LOT of people needed, however, they also worked like an insanely cheap under powered computer. I sold mine off awhile back, it did run Vista and was insanely slow. You could not get anything done on it. It could hardly play video, at least the one I had hardly could.
So they went another direction. When Apple came out with the new MacBook Air what happened? Other manufacturers, who had been sitting on their a**es for all those years started scrambling to come out with ultra books of their own. Suddenly, flash drives and no optical were all the rage in ultra books, and netbooks started their well-deserved death spiral.
Now if I owned a full entertainment system, and this was just for an on the go computer, I could see it being very nice, light and small and if for travels a optical drive is rarely required. It is funny yet again Apple came out with it and THEN others did. (Unless someone did before Apple?) Even if that is true, it was likely limited to one company. Now everyone is making them, so I wonder why did no one else do it first?
It does feel that many other companies are waiting for Apple to release a new product and then basically copy that idea and it may even be more useful for some yet they still copied.
I've owned a MacBook Air for over two years. I've never been held back by the lack of an optical drive. There was one time early on when I had to create an ISO on my iMac, and copy it to the MBA. Took about 15 minutes of my time and effort. And, had I found the occasional need for an optical drive compelling enough I could buy an external one.
I did a test awhile back on a Windows Tablet, as long as I had a television with a blu-ray player the needs of an optical drive greatly declined and I was able to do most from a USB.
If you watch the Apple video on the MacBook Pro Retina you may start to understand their vision of innovation. Sometimes you have to leave the old behind to be truly revolutionary, and sometimes revolutionary looks like evolutionary on the surface, but is really a watershed moment.
Another example, Apple removed the floppy drive in 1998 (not even close to an optical media, floppies were dying for many reasons) however I did not even start using floppies until 1999 and had to use them for a few years until flash drive prices dropped enough. Thankful when they did, I hated floppies, unstable and hardly any space.
Do you want to know one of the top three technology moments of the last 20 years? One that has shaped our computing/technology experience more than almost anything else? It profoundly affects hundreds of millions of peoples' lives every day: The day that Apple released iTunes for Windows. Watershed moment in computer history. It started the unprecedented success story that was the iPod, and introduced the Apple ecosystem to millions of people who would never have given an Apple product a second thought before. Yet most people who use Apple products today probably couldn't even tell you when it happened. That's innovation, my friend.
iPods were always nice, these days I just use a shuffle and my iPhone, did have a Mini which was amazing when I received it. When released they also were the first company to give us a more streamlined user friendly device. All these things over the years really makes me wonder why no one else could think of these things first.
So I say again. Vote with your wallet. Apple makes revolutionary, innovative, easy to use products, and that's why they continue to do well while the rest of the computer industry is sputtering. If you don't share their vision of what a computer or smartphone should be, you're free to buy another product.
Fair enough overall, however the issue still is that I want to be able to like one of their computers. Since it does not meat my needs I cannot at this time, though I wish it did. Hard to justify the cost when it is lacking a blu-ray drive etc.. however there will likely be a day where that will no longer matter, I will have the television blu-ray player and even a Windows PC for home yet pick up a Macbook Air for on the road. I was looking at one awhile back, and I know lack of an optical drive will not NO effect on travels. No drive in Ultrabooks is a universal across all of the systems, so that is nothing I could get on Apple about. Only when they removed it from the Mac Mini and the Macbooks.
I will see were things go, my needs today may be very different in a few years.