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Job's said it was a bag of hurt, yet ...
- Thread starter phrehdd
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Maybe Blu-Ray and DVD wouldn't be so down in the doldrums now if Blockbuster Video still existed.
Perhaps if there were rental stores but then again, rent from Redbox, Netflix or go buy from Amazon, Best Buy etc.
The bigger picture is, Netflix and Amazon (and others) do big business in streaming; Redbox is the sole media rental outlet anybody knows anymore; buying a stash of scratchable optical discs is becoming a niche market of its own.
Yup, my local mom and pop store went out of business last year. All that is left are two red boxes near me. Haven't used one, but that is all that is left in my area.
How amusing referring to purchasing discs as a stash of stratchable optical discs as a niche market. So why is this amusing? Because the market is over 6 billion dollars annual. The dynamics of rental, purchase and streaming is still in flux. We can certainly say that at one time it was VHS and Laser Disc and now DVD and Blu-Ray. Soon with the uptick in sales of 4K TVs we will see a larger catalogue of UHD Blu-Ray along with the sale of the players. So how does the latter impact sales... time for some conjecture here:
People get all sorts of access to the internet and it remains of course the primary for streaming movies. Not everyone's connection can handle without hiccups a high action 1080p movies yet the trend continues to grow. We have seen H.264 for ages and now H.265 which promised better compression and potential to generate files half the size of H.264 yet, reality is that to get similar quality, the file size may only be up to say 14-17 percent smaller. When we look at 4k movies, they are going to be at best double the size of 1080p movies and more likely 3.7x the size. This presents problems for streaming 4k with all of its goodness or should I say they are streamed missing a great deal of what could be offered. People wanting the full effect will either have perhaps 3 choices: buy/rent a disc, do a partial download of the movie before play start or have a complete copy of the movie on hard drive. What we see are studios starting to increase the 4k disc catalogue, plan for filming movies knowing they will go to 4k disc at some point and more.
Where we might all agree, streaming movies will be the prevailing force and physical media fall second. The debate then may be how far second and whether it will die out entirely. Of the latter, I don't see its death any time soon.
Apple led the charge for removing the optical disk and now we have the era of the Ultrabook... likely inspired in part by the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. That doesn't mean it was the correct choice but apple did in effect create or at least draw a lot of awareness to an emerging product line.
I understand the motivations for removing the optical drive. What I believe the OP is trying to get to is that Apple manipulated the market for digital downloads by removing the optical drive, not supporting blu-ray and limiting audio codecs in OS X. In effect they supported their own iTunes model by limiting the capability of their equipment to play alternative media sources. That is a reasonable assessment to make. Under the guise of improved products, Apple drive sales to our movie / music / TV download services.
I back up everything that I can. While I still can...
It was in part a marketing ploy. Apple wanted to push the iTunes Store in favour of BluRay. So, trash the competition.
Whatever Apple's decision was - we'd still have content streaming services such as Netflix.
I've been given a USB Flash drive quite often.
The Cloud is good, but it isn't good for everything. Can be unreliable, slow, expensive ( think bandwidth limits and backing up your Mac / iPad storage ) , and unavailable ( i.e., no internet access ).
Whatever Apple's decision was - we'd still have content streaming services such as Netflix.
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I've been given a USB Flash drive quite often.
The Cloud is good, but it isn't good for everything. Can be unreliable, slow, expensive ( think bandwidth limits and backing up your Mac / iPad storage ) , and unavailable ( i.e., no internet access ).
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I worked with a client that needed information from their corporate payroll system to enter into their onsite system, and really had to laugh when they called me in to 'identify' what the heck they received from the payroll system company.
Turned out it was a 'mag tape'. Really.
They wanted the data, the default was (still) to receive a whopping huge mag tape reel. I had to work with the payroll company to try to find a viable media that they actually could use. The only thing was to have them dump the data onto CDR discs.
People should never discount optical media. It's here to stay (for a long while).
As an aside: their payroll company didn't want to send the data online because of security concerns. As if the discs were somehow more inherently secure? The discs were password protected, but the password was on the disc for one run. I guess mag tape would be the perfect form of security as no one uses that, short of large (super huge) corporations anymore.
PinkyMacGodess,
I completely agree with you, there are many people/companies out there that still have things backed up on all kinds of optical media (I used to get SyQuest disks way beyond when they were still useful) but I think there are a number of people who have posted to this thread who misunderstand something. I hope you don't mind but I changed your quote to better illustrate the point "People should never discount optical media. It's here to stay (for a long while) but that doesn't mean it's use is growing, in fact it is decreasing dramatically and will continue to decrease until it reaches a point where it is no longer profitable to make new discs/tapes/readers/ect".
Optical Drives weren't the first thing to go! 
While there may be use for optical disks for business use, it's certainly not what I want for my media storage and other consumers probably feel the same.
The flagship HMV here is holding a massive closeout sale, and so I went to see if there were bargains to be had. After going through the entire store I ended up not buying a thing! Sure there were some movies and music I'd be interested in buying, but I just don't want the clutter! I bought an empty drobo (from the marketplace here actually) and filled it with spare drives. After ripping my collection I've put all my dvds/cds in boxes and haven't needed them in years.
While there may be use for optical disks for business use, it's certainly not what I want for my media storage and other consumers probably feel the same.
The flagship HMV here is holding a massive closeout sale, and so I went to see if there were bargains to be had. After going through the entire store I ended up not buying a thing! Sure there were some movies and music I'd be interested in buying, but I just don't want the clutter! I bought an empty drobo (from the marketplace here actually) and filled it with spare drives. After ripping my collection I've put all my dvds/cds in boxes and haven't needed them in years.
No worries, however I don't see the decline happening that quickly. I don't argue that it will, but I don't think it's going to be as quick and dramatic as say those biodegradable DVD's that Circuit City was backing, or the end of, what was it, HDDVD's? Who remembers those? But everything changes. Change is unavoidable. Like making decisions.
Please buy this:
https://www.adorama.com/owcmrssbdr6.html
...and stop complaining.
By the way: Jobs was right - It -was- a bag of hurt and I've -never- had to use a BluRay disc for -any- content I require. Like DVD, its format was created simply as a means to perpetuate DRM. You were tossed the "better resolution" bone.
https://www.adorama.com/owcmrssbdr6.html
...and stop complaining.
By the way: Jobs was right - It -was- a bag of hurt and I've -never- had to use a BluRay disc for -any- content I require. Like DVD, its format was created simply as a means to perpetuate DRM. You were tossed the "better resolution" bone.
Blu Ray optical is not just for commercial movies given that it is also at that time excellent for backup of smaller volumes of data (and at that time, cheaper than acquiring multiple flash drives of similar volume).
1080p Blu Ray absolutely has superior video and ability for HD audio over its competitors. If someone has a decent TV, decent audio set up then to have less is LESS. Your bone statement was lame. Why bring up the DRM argument? Amazon, Vudu and iTunes rental/purchase also have limitations for playback.
Just because you don't need/use Blu Ray, don't assume that the rest of the world should emulate you as that would be truly arrogant. This was a decision by Apple that many don't agree with and many don't buy the BS "bag of hurt" blather Jobs gave given his history of wanting to control media as well as the form over function (thin is better) Apple motto.
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Are there still people using a optical disk drive these days? in the cloud era
Yes and there are still people with powerful CPUs within their developer/programmer desktop during the days of PaaS.
DOY.
Thank you for your insightful and pleasant contribution to the conversation.
I did a poll a few weeks ago in the Mac Pro subforum. About 74% still use optical disks in their computers. I was surprised it was that high.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/do-you-still-use-optical-discs-in-your-computer.2041720/
I wonder if you would get the same responses out of the other forums from the owners of the Mac Mini or iMac? Very interesting. I know I still use my optical drive, more for ripping than anything else.
I also did a poll in the same forum asking if the next Mac Pro should have an optical drive/bay, and the results were 70% for "NO":
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/do-you-think-the-mmp-should-have-an-optical-drive-bay.2042173/
So it would seem that although many people are still using disks, they think that it is time to move on. That's just my own interpretation of the results of course.
I can understand tech companies wanting to make the switch to digital.
Less production/use of raw materials also equals less cost and a reduced carbon footprint.
More demand on digital platforms also forces innovation into those technologies.
I can think back to about ten years ago when I bought all my games on discs, films on DVD and I bought all my music on CD, this took a train ride into town and a significant part of my afternoon. I also think this was about the time Apple were really pushing films and TV episodes on the iTunes store. I never thought I could go all digital, I wanted my stuff.
Now however, all of my devices are linked to my Spotify account for music, and they're all also attached to my Netflix and Amazon Prime accounts for films/TV. To play all my games I simply use Steam.
Having said that, I bought the film Passengers earlier and Sky have also sent me a DVD. A nice touch, but I'd rather they didn't waste it on me.
To me physical media is dead, long live the cloud.
Less production/use of raw materials also equals less cost and a reduced carbon footprint.
More demand on digital platforms also forces innovation into those technologies.
I can think back to about ten years ago when I bought all my games on discs, films on DVD and I bought all my music on CD, this took a train ride into town and a significant part of my afternoon. I also think this was about the time Apple were really pushing films and TV episodes on the iTunes store. I never thought I could go all digital, I wanted my stuff.
Now however, all of my devices are linked to my Spotify account for music, and they're all also attached to my Netflix and Amazon Prime accounts for films/TV. To play all my games I simply use Steam.
Having said that, I bought the film Passengers earlier and Sky have also sent me a DVD. A nice touch, but I'd rather they didn't waste it on me.
To me physical media is dead, long live the cloud.
So what if Apple dropped the built in optical, you can still add an external. I believe Apple even sold an external SuperDrive for that purpose. I have an external Blueray drive on my Mac Mini.
Apple has dropped built in optical long ago and they were right.
I also have an external Blu-ray drive on my Mac Mini that I haven't used in years.
All discs have been ripped and archived. Viewing via dedicated server in full HD quality.
Physical media is a niche market now, despite the temporary vinyl revival. All of it supported by enthusiasts of each format.
Just like there are still coin & stamp collectors in the world, there will always be physical media hoarders, sorry ... appreciators!
The mainstream has moved on from spinning discs to solid state, cloud storage and streaming.
That's were the big money is flowing to.
Wishing for optical media in any future Mac is like wishing for a cassette player in your next 2018 BMW.