Steve Jobs Suggests Blu-ray Not Coming to Mac Anytime Soon

[scoobydoo99]

you are lobbying for Apple's FAILURE, and instead of trying to argue to turn them around and stop them from going over the cliff, you are choosing to push them over it with your position.

That sound you hear is millions of people laughing at your description of the world's number one "most innovative" company (Fortune), number one "most admired company" (Fortune), and number one "most valuable" technology company (Wall Street market cap) as "going over the cliff." With over $40 Billion in cash, Apple is not only NOT going over the cliff, but they own the whole mountain.

Like many before, you can make dire predictions about Apple's demise, but the fact is, they continue to DEFINE the direction for consumer technology, not FOLLOW it. As I wrote before, Blu-Ray is dead, and was dead on arrival. Physical media is a quaint little anachronism that the next generation will look at with curiosity, wondering why anyone ever used such a thing. Will Blu hang on for a while? yes. Are there some (particularly professional content authors) who need Blu now? yes. But consumer products don't need to be everything to everyone. Digital local and cloud storage is the present and future for consumer consumption. Take a deep breath and give up your physical media

 

[yg17]

Just so we understand that YOU understand you are lobbying for Apple's FAILURE, and instead of trying to argue to turn them around and stop them from going over the cliff, you are choosing to push them over it with your position.

You can stop now. We know who the true consumer supporters of Apple are, and how they see the issue. For everything negative I've said about Steve Jobs, and it has been considerable, the end result would be IF HE LISTENS to me and the others here, and ignores you and your ilk, he will not have only saved his own job but Apple itself.

If Apple fails because of their refusal to support new technology, then good riddance I say. It would be a lesson to other companies to give consumers what they want or face the consequences.

 

[xbjllb]

Since BluRay appeared, Apples share price has continued to rise. So if this is hurting Apple it is not hurting by much.
C.

Because Apple's bottom line is enjoying a black line iCrap BUBBLE.

If you don't know what an economic bubble is, research. Apple's bottom line is a textbook example of a bubble. And it will pop, just like any other bubble, because IT IS UNSUSTAINABLE.

Jobs has run out of iFads to plunder until his iBrain chip comes out.

Now the man is desperately trying to cannibalize his own failures... Apple's next big thrust?

Apple TV. ANYTHING but a desktop computer.

Can the writing on the wall be any more evident?

Look: Business 101: Make a better product, a better COMPUTER, heck, the BEST COMPUTER FOR THE MONEY, and people WILL BUY THEM.

Time for someone to pull Job's leash back down to earth. The air is too rare where he's been floating.

 

[scoobydoo99]

... Apple's next big thrust?

ANYTHING but a desktop computer.

EXACTLY. you are making my point for me. Desktops are the PAST. Mobile devices are the future. I now carry the equivalent of a desktop in my pocket. Apple (Steve, really) has the vision to see the future of technology and realizes that the only reason we ever HAD a desktop was because the hardware was too big to be mobile. What we REALLY want is to be able to DO things with technology and have access all the time, wherever we are.

Go ahead, throw your desktop in a backpack and drag around a suitcase full of Blu-Rays. The rest of us will stream HD movies from the cloud to our iPads and enjoy life

 

[janstett]

Wow. Some ****** with a ton of money and corporate power figures out people are stealing music by the billions and figures out they need an updated 60's transistor radio to store and play it. 60's free music was AM radio, which was taken over in the 90's by Nazis and Nazitalk. No more free music; transistor radios died. Who with a brain wants to listen to Rush & Ilk 24/7? Or at all?

I think you've got your history a bit muddled there, pal.

AM music radio died because of FM, which offerred a higher quality signal and stereo. By the late 80s you couldn't give an AM radio station away and it was a wasteland of sports talk and news radio. The talking heads, like them or not, gave new life to AM radio and I'm sure the people who own those AM stations are grateful that there's a reason for it to even exist anymore.

I live in the NYC market and I watched as the flagship radio station of the once glorious NBC radio network, WNBC, was sold and became a sports talk station; and saw the once flagship WABC turn from music to all talk and eventually sold off from ABC.

 

[xbjllb]

That sound you hear is millions of people laughing at your description of the world's number one "most innovative" company (Fortune), number one "most admired company" (Fortune), and number one "most valuable" technology company (Wall Street market cap) as "going over the cliff."

THAT BS (and it is BS) you're quoting was bought and paid for in ad dollars flocking iCrap, Genius. 100% bought and paid for. Welcome to capitalism, prostitution, and REALITY. Magazines are tanking and will gratefully and slobberingly laud anyone who throws pennies at them. Like they'd ever crap on anyone in their top ten sources of ad revenue.

Take a deep breath and give up your physical media

No one is giving up their physical media, Apple Doggie. Not for 10-20 years. However, all iPods, iPhones, iPads, and iCrap WILL have long been in dumpsters by that time, on top of Slinkys, frisbees, transistor radios, and hula-hoops.

 

[aaaaaaron]

Every Mac can play CDs.
But no one ever does.

I'm playing a cd right now, so I guess you're wrong. While a cd isn't quite the quality of a sacd, it still beats the quality of most itunes media.

A BluRay slot in a Mac would be a very different mechanism. A built-in device for supporting Sony's vision of the media future. Not Apple's.

and on this, it's not as though putting a blu ray drive in a mac will turn it into a vaio or something. but if you are scared of sony's vision invading your computer space, I guess you will just have to deal with your inferior quality media.

 

[Carniphage]

If Apple can upgrade the iTunes Movie in the following ways, I'd be more than happy to say "forget commercial Blu-Ray playback":


.....1. 1080p resolution

.....2. a codec equal to or superior to that of Blu-Ray's
..............(a pixelated 1080p is worse than a tighter 720p)

.....3. All the extra features and surround options of a
..............conventional Blu-Ray commercial release

1080p at high bit-rates is something that collectors and enthusiasts desperately care about. Just as audiophiles care desperately about audio-fidelity. Someone the other day thought 4K would be even better!

(If I had a projector, I'd care too. But at my sofa distance, I genuinely can't see any improvement. )

It's worth noting that the iTunes music store has become a commercial success without addressing the needs of the audiophile audience. Apple could sell audio files that are four-times the size, but my guess is that such a development would be seen as a *negative* by the majority of its audience. The majority don't detect the difference. They prefer the convenience of a smaller file size etc.

The rumors are that the next generation of the AppleTV will support 1080p playback. But I doubt that Apple is going to go after the extremophiles in any of these markets. The profitable bit of the mass market is in the lump in the middle.

But that should be a cause for rejoicing for the collectors. No one is coming to take away your BluRay collection.

C.

 

[xbjllb]

EXACTLY. you are making my point for me. Desktops are the PAST. Mobile devices are the future. I now carry the equivalent of a desktop in my pocket. Apple (Steve, really) has the vision to see the future of technology and realizes that the only reason we ever HAD a desktop was because the hardware was too big to be mobile. What we REALLY want is to be able to DO things with technology and have access all the time, wherever we are.

Go ahead, throw your desktop in a backpack and drag around a suitcase full of Blu-Rays. The rest of us will stream HD movies from the cloud to our iPads and enjoy life

To those of us with JOBS, who choose to leave our JOBS at our DESKS so we can ENJOY LIFE, as opposed to IDIOTS who want to carry their JOBS around with them wherever they go, desktop computers aren't going anywhere.

Only the unemployed and people like Jobs who LIVE LIKE UNEMPLOYED think carrying around their WORK with them 24/7 is progress.

For 99% of the people on this planet, carrying their WORK and BOSS around with them 24/7 is an apt description of HELL.

 

[scoobydoo99]

THAT BS (and it is BS) you're quoting was bought and paid for in ad dollars

lolz. well, aaaanyway...the surveys were public, and market cap is stock value, which isn't "paid for in ad dollars" whatevr that means. why don't u walk across the trailer and open the door....the cats want in.

 

[xbjllb]

I think you've got your history a bit muddled there, pal.

Not muddled, other than that I agree with you. I just left out FM radio and the 70's, as it didn't figure into my point, and certainly didn't negate it.

 

[DakotaGuy]

You can certainly download a nice 1080p 12GB version of Avatar - which is very difficult to distinguish from the BluRay.

Not legally of course.

The quality issue is a valid point. But I think it is a point for collectors and enthusiasts, more than it matters for the mass market.

Does that 12GB downloadable version which you claim rivals the BD version in quality include the DTS HD Master Audio uncompressed audio track as well? Many people have upgraded to audio systems that can play these new uncompressed formats so why would they want to go back to lossy audio formats?

Why do HDTV's continue to advance in picture quality if the normal mass market does not care about quality? What is the point of buying a new LED-LCD 1080p 120Hz large screen HDTV if you are just going to feed it lower quality downloads? How about 3D?

Taking highly advanced video and audio equipment and then feeding it material that is lacking in quality doesn't make any sense to me. To match BD video and audio quality the download file sizes would be huge. Unless new compression techniques are introduced soon or ISP's give everyone unlimited bandwidth at record speeds without charging much more Blu-ray still has a place for several years to come.

Steve doesn't care about the video or audio quality. Because he does not care he doesn't think anyone else should. Steve cares about one thing when it comes to this and that is money.

 

[Carniphage]

and on this, it's not as though putting a blu ray drive in a mac will turn it into a vaio or something. but if you are scared of sony's vision invading your computer space, I guess you will just have to deal with your inferior quality media.

I am genuinely not afraid of Vaios. I bought one last year.

All I am saying is that different hardware manufacturers each a different business model when it comes to media.

Just as different auto manufacturers have a different idea of how cars will be in the future.

It's not reasonable for a manufacturer to always share your view.
But is seems odd to me to take that decision personally.

So many posts on here seem to take the form "How dare Apple not agree with me!" People seem genuinely angered and even insulted by this - which seems a bit strange.


C.

 

[xbjllb]

lolz. well, aaaanyway...the surveys were public, and market cap is stock value, which isn't "paid for in ad dollars" whatevr that means. why don't u walk across the trailer and open the door....the cats want in.

Oh yes, stock value... now that's as valid an indicator of "value" as the particular configuration of stains on my filthy underwear this particular morning.

And just as manipulated, if so desired.

And an awful lot of rich people live in trailers, snob. Not me personally.

 

[janstett]

They thought MiniDisc was worth it. They thought BetaMax was worth it.
Basically Sony has backed a ton of formats. About half of them have succeeded (made money for Sony) and half of them have failed (lost money for Sony).

I would argue strongly that the linking of BluRay to PS3 was one of the reasons that PS3 failed in the market. And although Sony "won" the HD optical disk battle, the outcome was a weaker Sony..

I think there's a lot of Sony hate that is blinding people's visions. We're all aware of Sony's failures but Blu-Ray is bigger than Sony. They have been seen as the tip of the spear because they make consumer electronics, but take a step back.

DVD came to exist as a format because Sony & Philips in one camp proposed a standard, Toshiba proposed another, and IBM brokered a compromise. So is DVD a Sony format? Partially -- they are certainly part of the DVD Forum which collects the licensing fees.

A similar phenomenon occurred for HD discs, but the two sides couldn't agree on a compromise. I had HD-DVD, and it isn't all that different than Blu-Ray. The two are actually fraternal twins but one had blonde hair and one had brown hair. The only differences were disc capacity (Blu-Ray held more), interactivity layer, and Blu has an extra layer of encryption. They supported the same video and audio codecs. Once again there is a Blu-Ray forum consisting of many companies that collect the royalties. Sony and Philips loom large, but Blu-Ray is bigger than just them.

So stop hating on Blu-Ray because you think it's a Sony product.

 

[scoobydoo99]

To those of us with JOBS, who choose to leave our JOBS at our DESKS so we can ENJOY LIFE, as opposed to IDIOTS who want to carry their JOBS around with them wherever they go, desktop computers aren't going anywhere.

Only the unemployed and people like Jobs who LIVE LIKE UNEMPLOYED think carrying around their WORK with them 24/7 is progress.

For 99% of the people on this planet, carrying their WORK and BOSS around with them 24/7 is an apt description of HELL.

well, u sound like u have to work are aren't too happy about it. sorry - can't help u with that

But, there's no need for corporate workstations to be "desktop computers." Just heads connected to a server (preferably in the cloud.) And i wouldn't carry work home either, if i were afflicted with such a thing

 

[Carniphage]

Steve cares about one thing when it comes to this and that is money.

Yeah, these greedy businessmen and their perpetual need to generate wealth.

When will they learn?

C.

 

[aaaaaaron]

very few can tell the difference between BR and DVD quality, even fewer even care. So you are arguing for 2% of the market, yawn...

who are these people that can tell and don't care about the difference in quality? more likely than not, they are people who haven't seen one, and are probably the same people who think itunes music is high quality... people are always looking for what's better and more awesome, and guess what, blu ray is better and more awesome. while my argument isn't quite scientific, i would bet that most people would prefer to have superb quality physical media (like blu ray) over locked down digital media that is seriously lacking in the quality department.

and for those who are worried about apple's vision, i'm sure they won't be filing for bankruptcy because they start offering a blu ray drive to it's customers.

it's really a no-brainer, gives us blu ray.

 

[Surreal]

A rational viewpoint.

Just a quick question. If you were prevented from ripping CDs by means of aggressive copy protection. And you could no longer put music on an iPod etc.

Would you *still* prefer CDs?

C.

Not at all. I don't own any blu Ray items.

Do you have any idea how many music professionals (people who make their living creating, recording, and selling music) don't have iPods, never did, and never will? People to whom music is work don't need it with them 24/7, for it is, work.

Well, I know a great many music professionals who defy that declaration. I,m even one of them. Besides that, those people are a SMALL portion of the market who you can't make plans for. By your description, they are not in the market for shiny new. (Again, I know so many people who counter your claim that music professionals don't want music with them 24/7 that I am only providing this counter for the sake of argument)

 

[scoobydoo99]

Steve cares about one thing when it comes to this and that is money.

um, yeah. that's because he is legally REQUIRED to care about ONLY money. To do anything else would be ILLEGAL!

It's called fiduciary duty.

So what's your point?

 

[xbjllb]

So many posts on here seem to take the form "How dare Apple not agree with me!" People seem genuinely angered and even insulted by this - which seems a bit strange.


C.

What you claim is people's reason for anger is inaccurate. No one here gives a flying ef whether Steve Jobs agrees with them or not. What people, and companies, and corporations, some of whom have invested six figures in Apple infrastructure, hardware, and software, are angry about is Apple choosing to no longer produce cutting edge workstation computers in favor of cheap overpriced remakes of fads and failed products for the lowest common denominator in order to inflate Apple's bottom line into a bubble.

Stockholders should be quite up in arms about this, as well as those on the board.

And if the real reason for eschewing being cutting edge is online streaming media sales profits, then there is a SERIOUS conflict of interest here, as well as considerations of monopoly and possibly even racketeering involved, and I'm only too sure the government would just love to come into and settle a few questionable business practices and uh, problems.

 

[scoobydoo99]

Stockholders should be quite up in arms about this, as well as those on the board.

The stockholders are too busy digging out of their piles of money to be up in arms about anything

 

[archipellago]

Yeah, these greedy businessmen and their perpetual need to generate wealth.

When will they learn?

C.

which would be fine if thats what iCon actually said, and he wasn't so two faced.

he says..

"We want to make the best products available....."

he means

"we want to make the best products available, that we can make 40% margin on and tell other people what they need..oh...and the QC guys can go to heck too.."

 

[xbjllb]

well, u sound like u have to work are aren't too happy about it. sorry - can't help u with that

But, there's no need for corporate workstations to be "desktop computers." Just heads connected to a server (preferably in the cloud.) And i wouldn't carry work home either, if i were afflicted with such a thing

YOU store your entire life on the "cloud", which servers will conveniently will be stored very close, if not actually in, CIA headquaters with backups at the NSA.

I'll pass.

 

[Carniphage]

I think there's a lot of Sony hate that is blinding people's visions. We're all aware of Sony's failures but Blu-Ray is bigger than Sony. They have been seen as the tip of the spear because they make consumer electronics, but take a step back.

So stop hating on Blu-Ray because you think it's a Sony product.

I am confused. Where is the hate?

I quite like Sony. They make nice TVs. I have quite a lot of Sony products.

I do think Sony have made some commercial mis-steps. And that seems be be demonstrated by their faltering commercial success recently. I'd love to see Sony become stronger, and compete with Apple like they used to.

C.