Seems like a lot use the optical drive for an SSD. So why give it up?

[Kendo]

For all those posts where people don't want an optical drive in the next refresh, most would prefer a thinner model as opposed to the option of having a small boot drive and an extra HDD?

I don't see why people want to get rid of the optical drive to save 4 ounces of weight. That space is so much more valuable as a secondary drive bay no?

 

[Stetrain]

I think that the next gen MBP will at least have the option for a blade-style SSD in addition to a normal magnetic HDD. Rather than keeping an optical drive that some small percentage of users swap out for a second drive it will just become part of the standard options.

Even if they went with a standard size 2.5" SSD in addition to an HDD, that's still smaller than an optical drive.

Basically, getting rid of the optical drive and having an SSD boot drive aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[dusk007]

This is a shot from notebookcheck review of the Acer TimelineU M3 (a 20mm 15" Ultrabook).

On the right is the 256GB mSATA SSD slot. The SSD is the green square that has the Sticker with LITE ON IT CORPORATION on it. But on the left there is still a 2.5" slot that can fit well a 2.5" HDD or SSD.
Obviously if Apple makes a MacBook Pro without an optical drive I expect that there is still one 2.5" bay in there and a mSATA 1.8" or a the slightly thinner long Toshiba blade style mSATA SSD.

Basically you should get a hybrid solution without any mods like optibay. Optibay is somewhat of a waste of space too as the HDD fills only half the space. I don't think that Apple can go only SSD (as in no 2.5" at all) because they are still to expensive and too many people that use it for work need the space only an HDD can deliver to a reasonable price. 1TB SSD is just too expensive.
Also not offering a small mSATA SSD slot would just be stupid. If there is any kind of a redesign and not just a refresh again then there will be an mSATA SSD slot IMO, because otherwise Apple MBPs would be really backwards. I cannot imagine any excuse for not offering such a slot other than no redesign at all.

 

[rwcooper]

I'd certainly like an HDD / SDD combination like this.