Phil Schiller Claims Customers Aren't Asking for Built-In Blu-Ray Anymore

[janstett]

To watch movies are just stupid. Who would want to watch a BR movie on a computer. Most people have big TVs with surround. Watch it on that.

iTunes has a movie store, for purchase or rental.

Do you think NOBODY watches any of that content on a computer?

I'm sure the actual numbers of people who use Apple TV are tiny. Even Steve Jobs called it "a hobby" not a business.

That means the bulk of people are watching on iDevices, which are far more inappropriate than a computer given their screen sizes than a computer would be.

Or, another way to look at it - it's fine to watch a movie on a 9.7" iPad but not on an 11" Macbook Air?

 

[haravikk]

While I can kind of understand the reasoning for the regular desktop lines, it's still a bummer not to have support for the Mac Pros, as it's hard to push it as a serious movie platform when you can't play Blu Ray disks! They're also still a good format for semi-perminent backup which for high-end machines seems like another good thing to make as available as possible for those that want or need it.

Considering the price of the Mac Pros it should surely be easy enough to cover any licensing fees to make it available for the high-end users.

 

[swagi]

I have a "decent AVR" and a Blu ray player.
Yeah you can hear the difference if your speaker system is worth 10000 dollars or more AND your living room is as big as an average appartment.
This DTS-HD-MASTER-ULTRA-BLINGBLING is just a marketing hype.
You are not hearing it. A professional music producer CAN hear the difference when concentrating.
You just THINK you hear the difference.

Oh - since when do I have to put a medical exam online here when regarding the subjective fact that I hear it. I also hear the "warmth" in an analog recording on Vinyl - granted you won't.

Though I'm in my mid-30s I still can hear frequencies of up to 16kHz (fact, I checked on this funny webpage). Just because you are deaf compared to me doesn't mean that I fall for "Bling-Bling" as you put it.

But maybe you are able to feel the difference when the frequency goes below those 50Hz. At least you should recognize the bass as that is what most people are accustomed too.

I was born before the digital media hype and therefore my hearing is not impaired with bad taste and bad habit. It's evident that today's youth develops the habit of preparing dumbed-down MP3s over the corresponding lossless tracks. Google it if you want.

Therefore I'll admit that you may won't hear a difference. Too bad for you.

 

[AppleMark]

IMO you do not need Blu-ray on a computer (to watch films), as invariably you will not get the most out of it compared to having a decent AVR & Blu-ray connected to a cinema screen and sound system. The poster that mentioned DTS-HD-Master, has it right.

I have apple TV and PS3 connected to my cinema system and there is a difference between what you get from streamed media from Netflix etc and Blu-ray.

In any case and my main point is choice.

iTunes is not the answer for either choice or value. For example I was looking to purchase / rent Prometheus from iTunes, however they want £9.99 (purchase) for what is a lesser quality output to a Blu-ray through my player. A Blu-ray version which as it happens cost me £14.99 and comes with an iTunes download for all my other devices. So in theory the Disc only cost me £5 extra which I can play forever and anywhere.

As you cannot legally copy iTunes films to DVD and Blu-ray and Apple has removed the choice from it's line-up, surely this is just market control?

For people saying that Blu-ray is over priced then you only need to look at iTunes and the fact I have never purchased a film on the format as I can find the same film for the same price / quality and own the physical media and do as I please with it.

Removing drives = Removing choice

 

[dmelgar]

also hear the "warmth" in an analog recording on Vinyl - granted you won't.

I could hang with it until this vinyl warmth.

What you're hearing is distortion. Vinyl analog recordings are hard to reproduce as cleanly as digital media.

Sounds like you'd also like tube amplifiers and monster speaker cables.

I don't beleive it either. Nostalgia. Different must be better. Digital sounds harsh... It's just numbers.

 

[katewes]

Phil Schiller's job is to tell Apple users what they want. Phil is Apple's spin doctor, and he sleeps well at night and can look himself in the mirror - because Apple's profits are more important to Phil than your opinion. Therefore Phil's goals are being met, even though the customer's aren't. If it makes money, then that is Phil's goal. Remember, Apple's goal is making money. It is not meeting customers' needs. Apple discards those customers who don't fit their product profile. Phil was the person who said everyone loves glossy screens. Phil is the one who said you can avoid the glare by tilting screens. And then 5 years later he introduces the Retina display as having less glare. What is it, Phil? 5 years ago you said the glare was fine, and now 5 years later you're saying you're able to reduce the glare? It's all spin, it's all saying anything to make money. Apple is spin, and Phil is Apple's mouthpiece for making outrageous statements.

 

[NumberNine]

Phil Schiller's job is to tell Apple users what they want. Phil is Apple's spin doctor, and he sleeps well at night and can look himself in the mirror - because Apple's profits are more important to Phil than your opinion. Therefore Phil's goals are being met, even though the customer's aren't. If it makes money, then that is Phil's goal. Remember, Apple's goal is making money. It is not meeting customers' needs. Apple discards those customers who don't fit their product profile. Phil was the person who said everyone loves glossy screens. Phil is the one who said you can avoid the glare by tilting screens. And then 5 years later he introduces the Retina display as having less glare. What is it, Phil? 5 years ago you said the glare was fine, and now 5 years later you're saying you're able to reduce the glare? It's all spin, it's all saying anything to make money. Apple is spin, and Phil is Apple's mouthpiece for making outrageous statements.

well said!

 

[Lifequest]

Phil Schiller's job is to tell Apple users what they want. Phil is Apple's spin doctor, and he sleeps well at night and can look himself in the mirror - because Apple's profits are more important to Phil than your opinion. Therefore Phil's goals are being met, even though the customer's aren't. If it makes money, then that is Phil's goal. Remember, Apple's goal is making money. It is not meeting customers' needs. Apple discards those customers who don't fit their product profile. Phil was the person who said everyone loves glossy screens. Phil is the one who said you can avoid the glare by tilting screens. And then 5 years later he introduces the Retina display as having less glare. What is it, Phil? 5 years ago you said the glare was fine, and now 5 years later you're saying you're able to reduce the glare? It's all spin, it's all saying anything to make money. Apple is spin, and Phil is Apple's mouthpiece for making outrageous statements.

It's spin, but it works for myself and all my friends and family. Not a single one of us use CD or Blu-ray and appreciate Apple not forcing us ALL to have one. I do not want to be forced pay an extra $100 for a blu-ray player I won't use in a fatter laptop/desktop.

If you want it, quit crying, buy an external one.

 

[The Bulge]

Phil Schiller's job is to tell Apple users what they want. Phil is Apple's spin doctor, and he sleeps well at night and can look himself in the mirror - because Apple's profits are more important to Phil than your opinion. Therefore Phil's goals are being met, even though the customer's aren't. If it makes money, then that is Phil's goal. Remember, Apple's goal is making money. It is not meeting customers' needs. Apple discards those customers who don't fit their product profile. Phil was the person who said everyone loves glossy screens. Phil is the one who said you can avoid the glare by tilting screens. And then 5 years later he introduces the Retina display as having less glare. What is it, Phil? 5 years ago you said the glare was fine, and now 5 years later you're saying you're able to reduce the glare? It's all spin, it's all saying anything to make money. Apple is spin, and Phil is Apple's mouthpiece for making outrageous statements.

A short-sighted rant and nothing more.

 

[Howard Brazee]

I gave up asking.

Even things like obvious bug fixes (my wife suffered with having only two extreme screen resolutions for 3 months on her iMac (the newest with the old keyboard)) - Apple doesn't appear to listen.

I'd love Blu-ray. That's how I watch all of my movies.

But Apple doesn't care about giving us choices, it knows better than we do, we are just little children who don't matter.

 

[janstett]

All the complainers said the same thing when Apple lead the industry in getting ride of the floppy drive.

All of the complainers said the same thing when Apple lead the industry in getting ride of ADB/PS2/MIDI/Parallel/SCSI in favor of USB.

All fo the complainers said the same thing when Apple lead the industry in getting ride of VGA in favor of DVI and then getting ride of DVI in favor of Display Port.

Shall I continue?

Tell us about when they got rid of firewire and matte displays

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Yes but Blu-ray isn't adaptable. Remember when Apple was able to automatically upgrade movies purchased through iTunes at 720p to 1080p versions for no cost? Can Blu-ray do that?

It did that by not offerring inferior quality in the first place

 

[The Bulge]

It did that by not offerring inferior quality in the first place

Majority rules. Sorry.

 

[Xiroteus]

It's spin, but it works for myself and all my friends and family. Not a single one of us use CD or Blu-ray and appreciate Apple not forcing us ALL to have one. I do not want to be forced pay an extra $100 for a blu-ray player I won't use in a fatter laptop/desktop.

If you want it, quit crying, buy an external one.

They are forcing (if you want one) people to pay more after removing the optical drive. There is also such a thing as options, iMac with drive and one without, personally if I was Apple I would like to give people options (externals are not options for me) not that they are hurting, extra sales cannot be a bad thing regardless of that.

 

[Gomff]

It's not short sighted, it's just getting more obvious as time goes by and Apple roll out the same marketing strategy time and time again.

Step 1: Get Tim Cook to rave about how customers just can't get enough of Apple's products at the keynote, as if he's reading a bedtime story to a 5 year old.
Step 2: Get Phil Schiller to demo some new, thinner (because thinner always means better right?) product using superlatives like "Gorgeous" and "Awesome".
Step 3: Get Jonny Ive to do that intense, over-considered breakdown of how Apple have developed this new process that means the product is even thinner (because remember, thinner is better, right?) in some kind of white, featureless timeless and perfect environment.
Step 4: Create demand by not making enough and promoting initial scarcity to make people clamor even more for their iGadgets.

Sorry to be so cynical.....I just preferred Apple when they weren't quite so dominant and up themselves.

 

[The Bulge]

They are forcing (if you want one) people to pay more after removing the optical drive. There is also such a thing as options, iMac with drive and one without, personally if I was Apple I would like to give people options (externals are not options for me) not that they are hurting, extra sales cannot be a bad thing regardless of that.

So it will be way cheaper to design one with ODD and laminate the display, becaue the new one is laminated and then have the thin one without ODD.

What the hell are you thinking?

 

[Xiroteus]

So it will be way cheaper to design one with ODD and laminate the display, becaue the new one is laminated and then have the thin one without ODD.

What the hell are you thinking?

It regards to the iMac no, they they would likely have to keep something like the older model and add some extra power and blu-ray etc...

The macbook pro, people say they are still selling the one with the optical drive, yes, not with the retina display, some want optical drive along with retina, that would be options people are looking for.

If I wanted a small HTPC I would likely have to go to the ASrock VisionX Series or any other close system based on the limitations of the current Mac Mini, if they had that option it could be a few more sales, no idea how many, having two current models of the same system could be questionable depending how well one would sell over the other and price.

 

[The Bulge]

Step 4: Create demand by not making enough and promoting initial scarcity to make people clamor even more for their iGadgets.

Oh the priceless classic. You are actually right, i heard they are building an island out of unsold devices somewhere in the Atlantic.

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It regards to the iMac no, they they would likely have to keep something like the older model and add some extra power and blu-ray etc...

The macbook pro, people say they are still selling the one with the optical drive, yes, not with the retina display, some want optical drive along with retina, that would be options people are looking for.

You can't have all the options in the world. I personally if unsatisfied with the product move to the one that satisfies one. If that turns out to be some other brand then that's what i'm buying.

I don't see a problem here, as a matter of fact i think Apple actually has people on a very short leash, because if you complain this much you are actually deep down craving for that product anyway.

Vote with your wallet.

 

[SE30]

A short-sighted rant and nothing more.

A short witted reply, got anything else?

 

[The Bulge]

A short witted reply, got anything else?

My most sincere condolences.

 

[Xiroteus]

Oh the priceless classic. You are actually right, i heard they are building an island out of unsold devices somewhere in the Atlantic.

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You can't have all the options in the world. I personally if unsatisfied with the product move to the one that satisfies one. If that turns out to be some other brand then that's what i'm buying.

I don't see a problem here, as a matter of fact i think Apple actually has people on a very short leash, because if you complain this much you are actually deep down craving for that product anyway.

Vote with your wallet.

A few more options would be nice.

If something does not fit my needs I will find another product that does. The issue is I want to like it, that is the only reason I take issue with it, I cannot imagine complaining just for the sake of complaining.

I could still see getting a Macbook Air once they toss in a retina screen down the line, for whatever reason there is no thought that an ultrabook should have a optical drive.

I still like their phones and players, see what the future holds, once I have a proper home theater again everything would be played their and who knows how much I would even care about some of these things.

 

[Sabbatini]

i dont

 

[The Bulge]

A few more options would be nice.

If something does not fit my needs I will find another product that does. The issue is I want to like it, that is the only reason I take issue with it, I cannot imagine complaining just for the sake of complaining.

I could still see getting a Macbook Air once they toss in a retina screen down the line, for whatever reason there is no thought that an ultrabook should have a optical drive.

I still like their phones and players, see what the future holds, once I have a proper home theater again everything would be played their and who knows how much I would even care about some of these things.

I guess the most viable option was to bump the specs on the old design and leave it be for some time along with the new one.

Obviously this is not the path Apple chose.

 

[janstett]

An Ode to Pixar

When Steve was alive, there was a definitive link between Pixar and Apple.

Pixar still strives for ultimate quality (and pioneered the direct-to-digital process bypassing telecine, directly rendering for DVD and then Blu-Ray). Apple, not so much. I'm surprised Pixar's good angels didn't steer Steve to the light.

I'm sure the inner circle at Pixar is thrilled to download their movies on iTunes and eschews the superior quality of Blu-Ray

You guys know when Steve went home he listened to vinyl, right?

 

[I WAS the one]

understand this. the future is in the cloud and the winner will be the one who got all the control in the mobility business. Not Apple, I mean Everyone. Google, Amazon... you name it. Cloud are spreading all over, light devices are going to arrive sooner than what we can expect. Apple is leading the technology industry not in devices this time but in service delivery. This generation is more comfortable downloading than grabbing an item.

 

[Xiroteus]

I guess the most viable option was to bump the specs on the old design and leave it be for some time along with the new one.

Obviously this is not the path Apple chose.

I have seen more people troubled by that then the removal of the optical drive, they wanted more power yet Apple is too focused on making everything insanely thin, they can only do that for awhile longer, yet anytime you think that is thin enough everyone goes thinner.