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Not all people have access to internet. I agree with you it is outdated technology and will eventually disappear, but outdated or not, stopping an optical drive may harm business.

The idea of 'live with it' doesn't work well when the people who keep you afloat are your customers. People still use optical media, and it has not reached the point of the floppy disk where its size limit and poor reliability made it useless.



Outdated analogy. Today we have broadband to replace optical media for installation issues and video content. Indeed, Apple is counting on this as the de-facto replacement medium.

It's not a question of *if* the OD goes to the dumpster... it's a matter of "when".

And I don't mean to queue the whiners about installing CS5 or Final Cut via a download. Live with it or order the flash drive version.
 
Not all people have access to internet. I agree with you it is outdated technology and will eventually disappear, but outdated or not, stopping an optical drive may harm business.

I just watched an older lady give an Apple Store sales guy fits because the Air doesn't have a built-in optical drive.
 
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