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

[archipellago]

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.

right on cue...

http://gizmodo.com/5579701/european-antitrust-guns-now-pointing-at-apple

 

[DakotaGuy]

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

When will they learn?

C.

I agree that Apple's main focus is like every other corporation and that is generating wealth, but I don't think adding Blu-ray support is going to ruin their download model. Steve himself has said that downloads are great and everyone loves the quality so what is he afraid of? Give the consumer a choice and in the end you might sell a few more computers.

Of course it remains to seen if Apple even cares about the Macs anymore. Their main focus is on the iDevices because that is where they think the market is headed. If your main focus is iDevices then downloads only makes sense. A few years down the road we might all be running Windows PC's as a normal computing system to hook our iDevices up to.

Never say never.

 

[Carniphage]

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.

Oh noes! It's the attack of the 9% monopoly again!
Run Steve, before they imprison you for abusing your minuscule market-share.

C.

 

[xbjllb]

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

True. This will only change when the bubble pops, the cash stops dead, and by then it will be too late for them to do anything about it.

And meanwhile, "Something Wicked This Way Comes" will already have long left town.

 

[archipellago]

Oh noes! It's the attack of the 9% monopoly again!
Run Steve, before they imprison you for abusing your minuscule market-share.

C.

see my link... at long last the EU is homing in on Apple.

 

[scoobydoo99]

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.

The CIA and NSA have been data mining your email, cell phone calls, and internet activity for years. Your ISP and cell provider don't even require warrants, they just give unlimited access upon request. Avoiding cloud storage isn't going to give you one bit of protection from that.

 

[xbjllb]

Oh noes! It's the attack of the 9% monopoly again!
Run Steve, before they imprison you for abusing your minuscule market-share.

C.

Market share is not the issue. What is at issue is HOW one endeavors to increase that market share and to what lengths one is willing to go to do so.

Crime is crime no matter the gain or loss.

 

[xbjllb]

The CIA and NSA have been data mining your email, cell phone calls, and internet activity for years. Your ISP and cell provider don't even require warrants, they just give unlimited access upon request. Avoiding cloud storage isn't going to give you one bit of protection from that.

Indeed. But why make it any easier for them?

 

[Surreal]

Evidence ?

You didn't even answer my premise. CD playback always worked and still does on Mac. This hasn't hurt iTunes. Why would Blu-ray playback hurt iTunes ?

You're like Carniphage in that you don't actually answer, you spin and rant.

Just like Carniphage said, you always COULD listen, but very few people do for personal consumption. Napster did not gain the popularity it did because people WEREN'T ripping their CDs. Seriously, there are BUSINESSES centered around ripping CDs. you are really playing dense if you are claiming that mere playback will be enough. it might CURRENTLY be barely enough for movies, but people are beginning to ask the same portability of video content that they ask of music.

To be completely clear, CD playback worked, but CD RIPPING HELPED iTunes. mostly because iTunes didnt have content enough to deny physical media without complaint from most. Blu-Ray does have a fair amount of red tape in regards to ripping, so, i sincerely doubt that Blu-Ray support would have the same function.

 

[Carniphage]

I agree that Apple's main focus is like every other corporation and that is generating wealth, but I don't think adding Blu-ray support is going to ruin their download model.

With respect, you are not running that company.

Apple has made a choice to not support a specific technology. If that decision is wrong, it will hurt them. But there isn't much evidence of that to date.

Remember Apple also pulled the floppy drive from the iMac and a dozen other quite radical changes. The All in one computer. The non-removable battery. None of which has seemed to hurt Apple.

We can compare this with a dozen other technology companies, which have bent over backwards to accommodate every technology going. And yet have struggled to remain profitable.

C.

 

[scoobydoo99]

Indeed. But why make it any easier for them?

aside from disagreeing about Blu-Ray in Apple products, we probably would agree on a number of things. I have finally realized that nothing will change, the future is coming, so I'm just going to use my iDevices, enjoy life, and party like it's 1999!

 

[aaaaaaron]

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.

First, you can't try to make your own, proprietary format, because when it goes down, you have people stuck with the losing format (i.e., Beta, Minidisc, Laserdisc, and HD DVD) who just invest good money on products that are no longer useful for the future. One day Apple will no longer hold the reigns and their media may prove inaccessible, problematic, and incompatible with the media devices of the future. As a format, iTunes isn't future proof. What happens when apple goes down and no one can authorize the use of their media? You end up with dead weight.

Blu ray won't last forever, but it is far from dead, and a great format for now. I don't care about what the market will look like in twenty years, I may be dead. But what I do care about is how the market looks now and about where quality media exists (like blu ray and sacd).

Second, while manufacturers of computer hardware, just like in the auto industry, can have different views of what's important to their company and products, it ultimately comes down to what the customer wants. These people are in the business of making money and selling actual products to customers, not in the business of selling prophecy for the future.

And lastly, I'm not mad or insulted, I just would like the option of having and running a blu ray on MY macintosh without having to run bootcamp to take advantage of all its capabilities. I mean, if Windows 7 can do it, surely Mac OS can too

 

[Carniphage]

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

If only those customers would stop throwing those wads of hundreds at the company.

C.

 

[janstett]

They need to change Blu-Ray name to Jobs-Ray, maybe then he will adopt the format.

or iRay

 

[xbjllb]

Would you like to know why the world is going mobile?

Would you like to know why Mr. Steve Jobs is pushing mobile so much? Why the "entire planet" is going mobile, when any studies would definitively show that quality of life was not increased by doing so, indeed, that quality of life was definitely decreased in every possible way?

Because things that move around get dropped. They break. More wear and tear. Why sell one desktop to someone that will rarely be moved and rarely break, when you can sell them five laptops in a similar timeframe?

Now apply laptops to iCrap. Wow, the revolution of SINGLE-tasking! Going back to a way of doing things PRE-AMIGA. 1983 technology.

Mobile doesn't give life; it sucks it up like a succubus.

But it sure makes more money for Apple, selling 5-8 fad quickly outdated mobile devices in the space of one reliable desktop. Oh, sure you keep iCrap around, pass it down to the lesser folk in the family. But not if they broke.

Of course, those damned desktops WOULD be updated more frequently if Jobs and Apple KEPT THEM CUTTING EDGE.

 

[Carniphage]

First, you can't try to make your own, proprietary format, because when it goes down, you have people stuck with the losing format (i.e., Beta, Minidisc, Laserdisc, and HD DVD) who just invest good money on products that are no longer useful for the future. One day Apple will no longer hold the reigns and their media may prove inaccessible, problematic, and incompatible with the media devices of the future. As a format, iTunes isn't future proof. What happens when apple goes down and no one can authorize the use their media? You end up with dead weight.

I have a cupboard with 300 DVDs that feels like a dead weight too.
Used to have a lot of VHSs - but they are now in land-fill site. Perhaps I have fallen out of love with hardware formats.

Blu ray won't last forever, but it is far from dead, and a great format for now. I don't care about what the market will look like in twenty years, I may be dead. But what I do care about is how the market looks now and about where quality media exists (like blu ray and sacd).

Apple's business model does not require or the demand the death of BluRay.
BluRay is a bit like your ex-wife.
You don't want her dead. You just don't want her picture in your wallet.

C.

 

[xbjllb]

If only those customers would stop throwing those wads of hundreds at the company.

C.

From your mouth to God's ear.

Happens to every bubble. Sooner, rather than later.

Jobs next iCrap "innovation"? The reworked Apple TV!!!!!! Only mobile! The iTV!!!!

ON NO!!! HERE WE GO, DICK TRACY'S 1930 WRISTBAND TV'S!!!

That bubble gonna be popping quick.

 

[diamond.g]

Does anyone else find it odd that MS doesn't offer BD playback, but there is 3rd party software for that. Whereas on a Mac there isn't. It would seem like someone would just fill the gap and allow people whom have upgraded their drives to play the movies.

 

[aaaaaaron]

Used to have a lot of VHSs - but they are now in land-fill site.

Come on C, let's start recycling, I mean, it's really the way of the future. You can call it iCycling if you want.

 

[xbjllb]

BluRay is a bit like your ex-wife.
You don't want her dead. You just don't want her picture in your wallet.

C.

Well let me be the first to tell you, Blu-ray is one helluva lay. More than that, she's efing brilliant, and already helped me increase my income by a huge margin, getting on the bandwagon long before anyone else in my industry. She's always full of incredible ideas no one's ever thought of before, and there's no one I rather have in my wallet.

Furthermore, on a cold dark night, a mere six feet away from that glowing 65", no one satisfies like she can.

You really lost out, Bud.

But like they say, may the best man win.

 

[aaaaaaron]

Either way, what's more important to me, is what I want for me, not what Apple would have me want.

Bottom line is that some people want a blu ray and Apple, the innovator that it is, is keeping us from having it.

 

[janstett]

Didn't realise you were the referee of this match!


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

Instead this is what happens.
1) Insert a CD in slot.
2) Press Rip - and shift the content into iTunes.
3) Press eject
4) Return disk to shelf. And then never ever touch it again.

This mechanism allowed customers to build-up a media collection in iTunes before the store was off the ground. The CD slot let them transfer their purchased collection into the digital realm.

IMO it's still better than the iTunes store because

(1) you can rip losslessly and/or in other formats such as FLAC, which Apple doesn't sell on the iTunes store only 160kbps AAC.
(2) you have a free physical backup in case you ever lose the files

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.

C.

No, it would be a device for supporting the best quality available NOW and technically since 2007. Not only is Apple not providing leading edge gear for the future, they aren't even keeping up with the best the present has to offer.

 

[xbjllb]

No, it would be a device for supporting the best quality available NOW and technically since 2007. Not only is Apple not providing leading edge gear for the future, they aren't even keeping up with the best the present has to offer.

Someone call the paramedics at Cupertino....



P.S. You are SO dead on the money.

 

[janstett]

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.

Ironically, "obsolete" media sometimes provides the highest quality. There is a big underground for ripping vinyl in 96kHz and 24-bit FLACs. And combined with modern click/pop removal, it is phenomenal sounding, way better than anything you can download on iTunes.

 

[xbjllb]

right on cue...

http://gizmodo.com/5579701/european-antitrust-guns-now-pointing-at-apple

Encouraging news. THANKS!