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Apple to Eliminate Retail Box Software Inventory

Not yet

I think this is a terrible idea. I still prefer to buy actual music CD's and then rip them to iTunes. No doubt DVD drives will appear less in Mac's thanks to the Mac Book Air, which I really want to purchase. It's to soon to abolish physical media for Mac software.
 
Not such a good idea, for one the box has shrunk over the years already. Now it will cost you more money to find a solution to back up your software for safe keeping. This will add up to more money being spent. I like to save the box & put it away with the cd.
 
Obi-Wan Kubrick said:
It's to soon to abolish physical media for Mac software.
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And not like that logic will stop apple.
Apple dump the floppy drive before we had a suitable replacement for it.

Remember when Apple dump the floppy drive it was in the days of dial up were downloads were at the rate of 10 mins per MB. Email was still mostly text only. CD burners were still 100's of dollars and blanks were near impossible to find if you did have one.
There was no way to move small files between computers. They were all trapped on a single file.

I agree with you physical media still has a long life ahead of it. I think it is way to soon to dump it as we just do not have the bandwithe out there for everyone to be able to download their software. A gig of data still takes a while to download.
 
In theory I don't mind the potential loss of a DVD drive (I'm talking complete loss, external and all), but not before deals are done to offer a free lossless download with EVERY CD or DVD you buy. I'm talking proper maximum quality stuff. A lot of iTunes music still isn't there and Blu-Ray still has a massive, massive quality edge over any (legal) film streaming / download service.

Seeing as that isn't going to happen at this point in time, it's too soon. That said, I would be shocked if the external drive is going anywhere within the next decade. Apple may be stubborn, but they're not stupid.
 
deep said:
Save some trees and force a few without broadband to evolve. Opens up space in the stores and cuts back on overhead in production. Smart move. I'm sure there will be a few copies available in the stores for extreme cases.
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how do you evolve when there's no company to get broadband from? the US has pretty bad broadband rankings remember. not sure if the US is the place to implement this at the current time
 
FranksWildYears said:
In theory I don't mind the potential loss of a DVD drive (I'm talking complete loss, external and all), but not before deals are done to offer a free lossless download with EVERY CD or DVD you buy. I'm talking proper maximum quality stuff. A lot of iTunes music still isn't there and Blu-Ray still has a massive, massive quality edge over any (legal) film streaming / download service.

Seeing as that isn't going to happen at this point in time, it's too soon. That said, I would be shocked if the external drive is going anywhere within the next decade. Apple may be stubborn, but they're not stupid.
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Hey I would like to see the drive axed yesterday but I understand some people need it...

But Next decade?
If it is not this refresh it will probably be in the next...
It's true that floppy's are still around but they are optional and there are external drives... Cd/Dvd's are just going the same way...

It's like there aren't options... You have external drives, you have USB pen, and as a last resort there are Also Apple stores right?
 
I worry about the effect this could have on the Mac Retail Stores.

Now that I have a range of Mac hardware, practically the only reason I make the 1 hour journey to visit an Apple Retail store is to check out the available software. I believe a range of software on show is also a benefit to those considering a Mac for the first time - as someone said earlier, without the software on show people won't believe it exists.

I am happy to use digital downloads for the odd $20 utility here and there, but for anything more expensive I want tangible goods I can touch and feel and look at in my software cupboard.

Maybe Apple are trying to become more like the Microsoft stores?
 
ciTiger said:
Hey I would like to see the drive axed yesterday but I understand some people need it...

But Next decade?
If it is not this refresh it will probably be in the next...
It's true that floppy's are still around but they are optional and there are external drives... Cd/Dvd's are just going the same way...

It's like there aren't options... You have external drives, you have USB pen, and as a last resort there are Also Apple stores right?
Click to expand...

I said external drive for at least the next decade. ;)

I'm guessing that it'll be this year or next for laptops with the drives retained for a few more years for the desktop units.
 
When you all are paying $200 a month for an Internet connection with a 5 GB cap on it, you'll look back on this as the bane of your existence. You really think Comcast, WOW, Verizon, Turner, etc. are going to give you more for less? Those companies are all scum and are going to push for every penny they can, and this is making it easier.
 
I think its a good move, the people complaining are the same group that complained when the floopy went.

Some of the reasons are no internet? wtf really? Do they have a computer? They only need to download it once, its not like you can't use it on the go when there is no internet connection.

Slow internet, once again its a one off download. The heavy suites are usually for professionals, and if you are professional without a broadband connection well then I have no words.

I'm sure even if they take the boxes out of the shops they will still ship them to those that have no means of connecting to the world. I just find it silly people posting on the INTERNET forums about WHAT IF I HAVE NO INTERNET?


Obi-Wan Kubrick said:
I think this is a terrible idea. I still prefer to buy actual music CD's and then rip them to iTunes. No doubt DVD drives will appear less in Mac's thanks to the Mac Book Air, which I really want to purchase. It's to soon to abolish physical media for Mac software.
Click to expand...

I do the same, but the reason is cause Apple does not offer lossless for the same price as a CD. Software from their servers will be up to date, installing from a hard copy requires you to sit through updates (which are huge these days as well)
 
Last edited:
I believe this is a win for Apple employees. Don't they have to fill some sort of quota for selling software products? Wouldn't this eliminate it?
 
azurehi said:
Total control seems to be Apple's goal...too bad
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leopard_update_02.jpg


"Stop this insolence!
I will decide how you acquire your software, and I will decide what drives you use......not you!!"
 
Worf said:
I believe this is a win for Apple employees. Don't they have to fill some sort of quota for selling software products? Wouldn't this eliminate it?
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It's a win for me, now I can have my software instantly. Now if Sony could just get with the program for the PS3 - that would be great if Uncharted 3 is downloadable.
 
So if you pay for an APP from the MAS, then how does re-downloading work? Is it the same as having 5 activations like the PS3 does it? Or do you have to back up to an external drive?

I still look at DLC as "glorified rentals" in its current state.
 
VivaLaDricas said:
So if you pay for an APP from the MAS, then how does re-downloading work? Is it the same as having 5 activations like the PS3 does it? Or do you have to back up to an external drive?

I still look at DLC as "glorified rentals" in its current state.
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You really haven't been paying attention, have you? Unlimited installs (no technical means affecting that, just have to authorize with your username/password on each new computer), unlimited re-downloading if you lose it to a failure of some type.

Nothing "rental" about it.

jW
 
Worf said:
I believe this is a win for Apple employees. Don't they have to fill some sort of quota for selling software products? Wouldn't this eliminate it?
Click to expand...
They have "metrics" they're supposed to hit for AppleCare, One-to-One and MobileMe, but no sale quotas of any kind.
 
Mal said:
You really haven't been paying attention, have you? Unlimited installs (no technical means affecting that, just have to authorize with your username/password on each new computer), unlimited re-downloading if you lose it to a failure of some type.

Nothing "rental" about it.

jW
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Didnt have to be an rude. Minus the first sentence thanks for the response. Thats pretty good then.
 
If they axe boxed software sales they also axe third-party retailers for Apple titles. In other words, it reduces competition for Apple.

My MobileMe subscription came up for renewal in January. Rather than pay Apple $99 for the automatic renewal I bought a boxed MobileMe "startup kit" for over 40% less from a seller on Amazon and used it for my renewal.
 
I'm all for it. It's cheaper, more efficient, and regardless of how many people complain about it, it's the way everything is going to be. Music is the same way, movies and tv shows are getting there.....books too. I don't see why people always see the negative side of things and can't see why this is a huge leap forward for getting software easily. Plus all you green-peace people should be happy too......less transportation/shipping costs and no materials/manufacturing for it.
 
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