What made Apple include HDMI on the Retina Macbook Pro?

[Ljohnson72]

I think the answer is a lot more simple...

Connecting to conference room projectors? Kind of one of the most lacking things on the "pro" lineup until now, that we've noticed at least.

I wish the conference room projectors I have to use had HDMI. I'm stuck with a VGA converter 99% of the time.

 

[NewbieCanada]

Think this could have been potentially one of the first decisions we have seen from Apple which wouldn't have happened under Steve Jobs. Want to stress that isn't me doing the stereotypical "Apple sucks, x wouldn't have happened under Jobs"

Does the HDMI port kinda take away some of the functionality of AppleTV too?

The Mac Mini has an HDMI port. I think people are making way too big a deal over this. It just makes sense.

 

[PVisitors]

With him dead only 8 months, the MBPR would have been in development when he was alive and had the HDMI and USB 3.0 in my opinion.

I agree about USB 3.0, but even with it in development while he was alive it wouldn't have taken long to add HDMI to it as production of the MBPR wouldn't have started until very recently.

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The Mac Mini has an HDMI port. I think people are making way too big a deal over this. It just makes sense.

Fair enough then.

 

[grahamnp]

I don't get why they added it. I'm not complaining because a feature is a feature whether I use it or not. However, they already have mini-DP (and 2!) for display connectivity and they've never cared much for external A/V connectivity. The Mac mini had some HTPC capability so it was more understandable there and also had to be used with an external monitor and HDMI is still more popular than DP.

With AirPlay mirroring coming up in ML, omitting the HDMI port and forcing people to use the mirroring with an Apple TV would be consistent with Apple's way of keeping you within the ecosystem.

I've noticed that they left out the dedicated line-in/microphone port and also digital audio in and out.