precisely, people don't know what kinds of costs would go into such a thing. If people want software to read and write blurays, that's more money apple has to spend for its developers to create said software. They have to acquire the parts, test them, potentially have engineers redesign the computer (just because the outside appearance may not change, the insides may have to be shifted around to accommodate for the drive.)
All of these things will drive up the cost of a bluray drive in a mac...
Agreed; the textbook organizes these expenses into fixed costs and variable costs. It is tempting to assume that Apple produces an infinite quantity of product to drive the amortized fixed costs down to zero, but with consumers also expecting a product refresh at least annually, that will never be the case.
Two things
1. As an option blu-ray costs only $100 for most computers and Sony only charges $70. Apple would still make a profit if it sold the drives as a $100 option (more likely a $150 option).
That's not for a slimline. But even if it were, that's still only looking at just the variable cost of the hardware, and since the Sony is presumably being sold with Microsoft Windows, some percentage of the however many Billion dollars that MS spent on developing Vista/Win7 was involved. That development cost has to be captured and accounted for.
FYI, do consider that if we notionally grant Apple a notional 5% marketshare and also assume that Apple's cost of implementation was the same as whatever MS's was, then Apple's per-unit fixed cost amortization is very straightforward: it will be 20x higher than MS's current cost.
2. Your comparison with optical and ipads and iphones is utterly crazy...
Yes, and that was the point of using them as the illustration: they're selling like hotcakes despite not even having a DVD optical drive - - fundamentally, it means that the consumers do not care that the 'feature' isn't present.
Note that with apple's backing a 9.5 mm blu-ray drive could be developed so don't say the other blu ray drives are too big. Apple's made so many new things, this would not be beyond their ability.
IIRC, when this thread started, Sony's slimline BD burner retailed for over $300. Yes, prices of new tech do come down over time, which is great - - but you'll perhaps notice that no one is yet selling a 6mm slimline yet. Technology projection claims are a dangerous slippery slope of temptation to be overly optimistic on the art of the possible. Over the years, I've seen far too many examples of so-called "projections" that flat-out disobey the laws of physics...and executive decision-makers who throw away good research money on stuff that will - literally - never ever ever work.
720p really, every time I watch something on youtube there is this drop down box with 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p (with high quality videos) I think people get the idea.
Understood, but you and I both have an appropriate contextual understanding of what these jumbles of numbers mean.
To illustrate, correctly identify what comes next:
{ 2, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 19, 22,
? }
The correct answer is: (
=30 ) ... and keep in mind that the point here is the contextual understanding that's required to come up with that as the correct answer. I'll not reveal the proof why it is so just quite yet, since I did find that this was a fun brain-teaser that I was introduced to when I first went to University in Philadelphia. But I will explain it fully later, after readers try to figure out the solution without having the relevant contextual understanding. Afterall, the whole point of providing this example is to illustrate how utterly "Obvious" the sequence's answer is, once you have the context.
EDIT (8 May):
Use Google to find a map of Philadelphia's SEPTA Mass Transit System, and look at the "EL" (Elevated Line) that runs East-West through the center of the city. The above is a sequence, but not a mathematical one: they're the names of the cross-streets where there's stops. Hence, one needs to understand the relevant context.
-hh
