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product cycles are not interchangeable, vhs =/= dvd, 1990=/= 2012

costing a fortune? like i said, my 4mbit flat is 25 bucks, and its expensive considering average household income in my country, and it can stream 1080p youtube, we're talking about average people, so no 4k resolution, 7.1 systems

and who archives media? average consumer certainly not, he watches a movie and then erases it, no?

again, the future is cloud (streaming) and flash memory, and by future i mean next 2-3 years
apple will show you that in the next few iterations of their computers

just answer a simple question, why didnt apple implement bluray? cause they are stupid? the answer to that question will resolve all your doubts, optical media will cease to exist in mainstream world, i.e. average costumer/consumer, they are the ones buying macbook air

I agree and I'd also like to point out that the recent removal of the ODD on half of their Mac product lineup and the complete dismissal of blu-ray technology has not hurt Apple's bottom line in any way, but In fact, Mac sales continue to grow each quarter and last quarterly earnings, outgrew the entire PC market in all geographies.

Apple is definitely not stupid and knows what they're getting into ditching ODD and blu-ray.
 
product cycles are not interchangeable, vhs =/= dvd, 1990=/= 2012

It does in terms of product permeation. it takes time for people to finally get their hands on the necessary technology. Blu-ray is undoubtedly going to be a bigger investment since end users need an HDTV to benefit from Blu-ray. but VHS was on the market for at least 30 years before DVDs became prevalent, and DVDs have been prevalent for the past 17 years itself.

costing a fortune? like i said, my 4mbit flat is 25 bucks, and its expensive considering average household income in my country, and it can stream 1080p youtube, we're talking about average people, so no 4k resolution, 7.1 systems

Have you ever tried downloading and streaming a 1080p, close to 25GB movie over that connection? Not just Netflix which adjusts quality on the fly.

and who archives media? average consumer certainly not, he watches a movie and then erases it, no?

Not a good response to the statement. People archive, and people archive to physical media. Not just movies, but personal and professional data.

again, the future is cloud (streaming) and flash memory, and by future i mean next 2-3 years Apple will show you that in the next few iterations of their computers

Apple only dictates what's done for Apple. The death of physical media will come only when no one makes them anymore.

just answer a simple question, why didnt apple implement bluray? cause they are stupid? the answer to that question will resolve all your doubts, optical media will cease to exist in mainstream world, i.e. average costumer/consumer, they are the ones buying macbook air

Jobs stated that he didn't implement Blu-ray because it was a "bag of hurt" although, (based on your statement, the mainstream costumer/consumer, that still buys more PCs than Macs), every other vendor gives it to their customers as an option.

I agree and I'd also like to point out that the recent removal of the ODD on half of their Mac product lineup and the complete dismissal of blu-ray technology has not hurt Apple's bottom line in any way, but In fact, Mac sales continue to grow each quarter and last quarterly earnings, outgrew the entire PC market in all geographies.

Apple is definitely not stupid and knows what they're getting into ditching ODD and blu-ray.

The removal of the ODD on half the lineup was a trend that was begun by the end users love of netbooks and tablets, which didn't have ODDs. The MBA wasn't even the first machine to remove the ODD and be razor thin.

Now, from a guy that hasn't owned a Blu-ray disc and never will, I agree that the day will come. But it won't come in the ridiculous time frame of 2-3 years. That is, Blu-ray will still be used by many, and ODDs will still be sold. Just because Apple doesn't put it into 2 out of 5 systems doesn't mean that the entire medium is dead.
 
It does in terms of product permeation. it takes time for people to finally get their hands on the necessary technology. Blu-ray is undoubtedly going to be a bigger investment since end users need an HDTV to benefit from Blu-ray. but VHS was on the market for at least 30 years before DVDs became prevalent, and DVDs have been prevalent for the past 17 years itself.



Have you ever tried downloading and streaming a 1080p, close to 25GB movie over that connection? Not just Netflix which adjusts quality on the fly.



Not a good response to the statement. People archive, and people archive to physical media. Not just movies, but personal and professional data.



Apple only dictates what's done for Apple. The death of physical media will come only when no one makes them anymore.



Jobs stated that he didn't implement Blu-ray because it was a "bag of hurt" although, (based on your statement, the mainstream costumer/consumer, that still buys more PCs than Macs), every other vendor gives it to their customers as an option.



The removal of the ODD on half the lineup was a trend that was begun by the end users love of netbooks and tablets, which didn't have ODDs. The MBA wasn't even the first machine to remove the ODD and be razor thin.

Now, from a guy that hasn't owned a Blu-ray disc and never will, I agree that the day will come. But it won't come in the ridiculous time frame of 2-3 years. That is, Blu-ray will still be used by many, and ODDs will still be sold. Just because Apple doesn't put it into 2 out of 5 systems doesn't mean that the entire medium is dead.

no it doesnt, just think about it, ships used sails for thousands of years, yet it needed only a couple of hundred years for them to use oil instead of coal, different times, different technologies, different people; lets say 1975 people could start using vhs, dvd was introduced 1996, people started to use it a couple years later (so 20+ years between) and then came out the bluray 2006 (so 10 years between) get the difference now? if you use simple math like you do, you could say that the next technology will come out in 5 years so 2011 (flash) but i dont think thats the case.

yes i have, do the math how long it takes... but again we're talking about average consumer, 80% average personal computer users dont even know what hd is, let alone the difference between 720p and 1080p, they just want to watch a movie... so a buyer (average consumer) that buys macbook air needs to stream 1080p content and then archive it for future editing?

archiving. do they? and how do you know that? professionals do. enthusiast do, maybe. but average consumer needs to archive 50gb of data per disc daily/monthly? what do they archive? hd videos for future editing? - not average consumer, 3d modeling - not average consumer. archiving at best - photos, videos, but why should you when you have your pc and everything on it. again, the average consumer, show me one who needs more than 250 gb space, guess what, thats exactly the space macbook air comes with.

apple dictates the whole industry. put yourself in ,for example, hp shoes, apple has growth, everybody else doesnt, what do you do? copy apple. what does apple do with its most affordable and high growth computers (macbook air, mac mini) - ditches optical drives, what do you do?

it isnt dead, but it has no future like dvd had in his days because there are better, more easier, practical, more failure proof methods available

look on the macbook pro forum, theres a pool saying that 80+% of users have used their odd 5 or less times, apple knows this for years...

there are certain things in this world that are incredibly transparent, easy to grasp, so-called no-brainers, yet some people just refuse to accept them and are deliberately in denial. you strike me as a smart fellow, how is it possible that you cannot grasp this concept? probably because of the lack of info and facts, and a bit of analytical thinking

there is a video of interview with steve jobs (D8) on youtube. he talks about technological waves. every technology has its spring, summer, fall and winter, and if a certain company wants to be successful it needs to catch and use those technologies in theirs spring (it was in a context of flash) and thats exactly what apple does.

why didnt they implement blu ray. steve jobs said its a bag of hurt. that means they had to pay the price if they wanted to use it. and why would they pay the price if they thought that technology would be obsolete in near future, am i wrong? so they chose not to use it, and use something else (thumb drives, icloud, ssd) which for the average consumer all make more sense and are more practical and thats exactly what apple is doing, and thats exactly what rest of the industry will be doing

i have never said that there wont be computers without optical disc drives, but they wont be mainstream, and blu ray will never be mainstream.

in my country, one empty blu ray disk cost 25 bucks, just like a monthly flat internet speed.
 
it didnt, its far too expensive, dvds are still mainstream, and after dvd there will be flash

You can get a pack of 15 25GB Blu-Rays for 15$, same price for 15 4GB DVDs.

The PS3 has helped make the Blu-Ray more popular. It's also the cheapest player (many people buy the PS3 just as a blu-ray player).

It's an available option on several models from nearly ALL computer manufacturers.

You can buy an external or internal Blu-Ray drive for the same price as a DVD drive.

You can get a blu-ray movie for the same price as a DVD, and most DVDs now are sold in combo packs that also include a Blu-Ray.


Just like in Chess: "Check."
 
no it doesnt, just think about it, ships used sails for thousands of years, yet it needed only a couple of hundred years for them to use oil instead of coal, different times, different technologies, different people; lets say 1975 people could start using vhs, dvd was introduced 1996, people started to use it a couple years later (so 20+ years between) and then came out the bluray 2006 (so 10 years between) get the difference now? if you use simple math like you do, you could say that the next technology will come out in 5 years so 2011 (flash) but i dont think thats the case.

yes i have, do the math how long it takes... but again we're talking about average consumer, 80% average personal computer users dont even know what hd is, let alone the difference between 720p and 1080p, they just want to watch a movie... so a buyer (average consumer) that buys macbook air needs to stream 1080p content and then archive it for future editing?

archiving. do they? and how do you know that? professionals do. enthusiast do, maybe. but average consumer needs to archive 50gb of data per disc daily/monthly? what do they archive? hd videos for future editing? - not average consumer, 3d modeling - not average consumer. archiving at best - photos, videos, but why should you when you have your pc and everything on it. again, the average consumer, show me one who needs more than 250 gb space, guess what, thats exactly the space macbook air comes with.

apple dictates the whole industry. put yourself in ,for example, hp shoes, apple has growth, everybody else doesnt, what do you do? copy apple. what does apple do with its most affordable and high growth computers (macbook air, mac mini) - ditches optical drives, what do you do?

it isnt dead, but it has no future like dvd had in his days because there are better, more easier, practical, more failure proof methods available

look on the macbook pro forum, theres a pool saying that 80+% of users have used their odd 5 or less times, apple knows this for years...

there are certain things in this world that are incredibly transparent, easy to grasp, so-called no-brainers, yet some people just refuse to accept them and are deliberately in denial. you strike me as a smart fellow, how is it possible that you cannot grasp this concept? probably because of the lack of info and facts, and a bit of analytical thinking

there is a video of interview with steve jobs (D8) on youtube. he talks about technological waves. every technology has its spring, summer, fall and winter, and if a certain company wants to be successful it needs to catch and use those technologies in theirs spring (it was in a context of flash) and thats exactly what apple does.

why didnt they implement blu ray. steve jobs said its a bag of hurt. that means they had to pay the price if they wanted to use it. and why would they pay the price if they thought that technology would be obsolete in near future, am i wrong? so they chose not to use it, and use something else (thumb drives, icloud, ssd) which for the average consumer all make more sense and are more practical and thats exactly what apple is doing, and thats exactly what rest of the industry will be doing

i have never said that there wont be computers without optical disc drives, but they wont be mainstream, and blu ray will never be mainstream.

in my country, one empty blu ray disk cost 25 bucks, just like a monthly flat internet speed.

To this I just want to add a quote from steve jobs

I think PCs are going to be like trucks,” Jobs said at D8, the All Things Digital tech show. “Less people will need them. And this is going to make some people uneasy.”


On the bright side for the PC faithful, trucks are still around; people still use and need them. The PC, Jobs suggested, will assume the role of niche workhorse as the touch-screen user interface – best illustrated, so far, by the iPhone and iPad – grows in maturity and usefulness.
 
You can get a pack of 15 25GB Blu-Rays for 15$, same price for 15 4GB DVDs.

The PS3 has helped make the Blu-Ray more popular. It's also the cheapest player (many people buy the PS3 just as a blu-ray player).

It's an available option on several models from nearly ALL computer manufacturers.

You can buy an external or internal Blu-Ray drive for the same price as a DVD drive.

You can get a blu-ray movie for the same price as a DVD, and most DVDs now are sold in combo packs that also include a Blu-Ray.


Just like in Chess: "Check."

ok so it started to get cheap... ahh just live in denial, you'll see

you'll understand better with a analogy: point and shoot digital cameras vs mobile phone cameras

mobile cameras are 'good enough' but far more practical and 'inside' the device you're using daily as your phone
 
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beosound3200 said:
You can get a pack of 15 25GB Blu-Rays for 15$, same price for 15 4GB DVDs.

The PS3 has helped make the Blu-Ray more popular. It's also the cheapest player (many people buy the PS3 just as a blu-ray player).

It's an available option on several models from nearly ALL computer manufacturers.

You can buy an external or internal Blu-Ray drive for the same price as a DVD drive.

You can get a blu-ray movie for the same price as a DVD, and most DVDs now are sold in combo packs that also include a Blu-Ray.


Just like in Chess: "Check."

ok so it started to get cheap... ahh just live in denial, you'll see

you'll understand better with a analogy: point and shoot digital cameras vs mobile phone cameras

mobile cameras are 'good enough' but far more practical and 'inside' the device you're using daily as your phone

I'm not in denial. I know the physical media will eventually die out, but not for a couple more years. DVD and Blu-Ray sells are still high. Many workplaces and companies use them. Schools use them. Newer and better forms of Physical Media in the form of a disc are still being researched. Physical Media will eventually be obsolete, but it isn't yet, and it won't be for several more years.

Besides, if another company like Dell or HP started stopping CD drives in all their models, you wouldn't be so keen on it.

I say we compromise. Since the place that phsyical media would fade out fastest would be the home, make a cheaper iMac around the 999$ price poit with no drive, and then offer the rest of the models with a Drive. Problem solved.
 
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I'm not in denial. I know the physical media will eventually die out, but not for a couple more years. DVD and Blu-Ray sells are still high. Many workplaces and companies use them. Schools use them. Newer and better forms of Physical Media in the form of a disc are still being researched. Physical Media will eventually be obsolete, but it isn't yet, and it won't be for several more years.

Besides, if another company like Dell or HP started stopping CD drives in all their models, you wouldn't be so keen on it.

I say we compromise. Since the place that phsyical media would fade out fastest would be the home, make a cheaper iMac around the 999$ price poit with no drive, and then offer the rest of the models with a Drive. Problem solved.

i never said it will cease to exist in 15 mins
several years is my prediction, and by several i mean 2-3, max 5 years, and it will no longer be mainstream, movies distributed by internet or other means will surpass the number of movies distributed on blu ray, average household wont be using blu ray, wont have odd in pcs etc.

the thing is, you know exactly what will happen with optical media, and can guess around what time, its days are outnumbered and it will be used less and less, that technology is declining because there are other means more practical for average consumer, thats why apple will never implement blu ray and will phase out odds from their computers probably sooner than later

dell and hp are in no position to influence the industry, they are just followers watching apples every move closely because they dont have the balls to make changes or heavily depend on costumer surveys:

Henry Ford: 'If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.'
 
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beosound3200 said:
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I'm not in denial. I know the physical media will eventually die out, but not for a couple more years. DVD and Blu-Ray sells are still high. Many workplaces and companies use them. Schools use them. Newer and better forms of Physical Media in the form of a disc are still being researched. Physical Media will eventually be obsolete, but it isn't yet, and it won't be for several more years.

Besides, if another company like Dell or HP started stopping CD drives in all their models, you wouldn't be so keen on it.

I say we compromise. Since the place that phsyical media would fade out fastest would be the home, make a cheaper iMac around the 999$ price poit with no drive, and then offer the rest of the models with a Drive. Problem solved.

i never said it will cease to exist in 15 mins
several years is my prediction, and by several i mean 2-3, max 5 years, and it will no longer be mainstream, movies distributed by internet or other means will surpass the number of movies distributed on blu ray, average household wont be using blu ray, wont have odd in pcs etc.

the thing is, you know exactly what will happen with optical media, and can guess around what time, its days are outnumbered and it will be used less and less, that technology is declining because there are other means more practical for average consumer, thats why apple will never implement blu ray and will phase out odds from their computers probably sooner than later

dell and hp are in no position to influence the industry, they are just followers watching apples every move closely because they dont have the balls to make changes or heavily depend on costumer surveys:

Henry Ford: 'If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.'

Basically that dell mark interprets you don't value the companies and have a bias towards Apple. If not speak now.

Physical media will still be around for 5 years minimum, and will probably last longer.
 
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Basically that dell mark interprets you don't value the companies and have a bias towards Apple. If not speak now.

Physical media will still be around for 5 years minimum, and will probably last longer.

like i said earlier in this thread, optical media will be around for 10-15 years and more, but it wont be mainstream, hell, people probably still use floppy

of course i have bias towards apple, how could i not? how in earth could i have bias toward such face-less, character-less, stance-less company like dell that didnt do squat to change the industry in any way in the last 10 years? today, they are just 'one of those tech companies'
 
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of course i have bias towards apple, how could i not? how in earth could i have bias toward such face-less, character-less, stance-less company like dell that didnt do squat to change the industry in any way in the last 10 years? today, they are just 'one of those tech companies'

Agreed, but Apple doesn't set the standard; especially if more people are buying another company's products.

Apple fans (myself included) can't say one minute that Apple sets the smartphone standard since more people buy iPhones than anything else, then another minute claim that Apple sets the PC standard when it's still only at 11% marketshare.

Most PC makers sell terrible consumer PCs (IMHO) but they still sell more than Apple, and still set the standard in terms of what should be offered in a machine. USB 3.0 is one example, as is Blu-ray.

Now, the floppy was axed from the Mac in the late 90s but never officially died until PCs stopped offering them and Sony stopped making them 12 years later.

Now, physical media will live on for far more than 15 years . . . hell we still have tape based systems being introduced and sold.
 
Agreed, but Apple doesn't set the standard; especially if more people are buying another company's products.

Apple fans (myself included) can't say one minute that Apple sets the smartphone standard since more people buy iPhones than anything else, then another minute claim that Apple sets the PC standard when it's still only at 11% marketshare.

Most PC makers sell terrible consumer PCs (IMHO) but they still sell more than Apple, and still set the standard in terms of what should be offered in a machine. USB 3.0 is one example, as is Blu-ray.

Now, the floppy was axed from the Mac in the late 90s but never officially died until PCs stopped offering them and Sony stopped making them 12 years later.

Now, physical media will live on for far more than 15 years . . . hell we still have tape based systems being introduced and sold.

yes, but recent apples success with its ios devices propelled the apple brand in the sky. in the last quarter, the only pc brand that rose was apple, 20%, everybody else fell. so with its power of brand, with its high-quality and beautiful computers, and backbone called ios (people who buy iphones get curious about the whole full-fledged apple experience and want to buy mac - look at mac os x lion, apple knows that, thats why we got launchpad) apple has a very bright future in pc world, do you see how much of an impact had the macbook air, everybody is rushing now to make one of their own, so in the end, it doesnt matter who sells the most, it matters who is the most popular and who has growth - he's the one setting the standards because all the others stance-less and plain companies look up to him. analogy bmw vs renault
 
like i said earlier in this thread, optical media will be around for 10-15 years and more, but it wont be mainstream, hell, people probably still use floppy

of course i have bias towards apple, how could i not? how in earth could i have bias toward such face-less, character-less, stance-less company like dell that didnt do squat to change the industry in any way in the last 10 years? today, they are just 'one of those tech companies'

You absolutely proved my point. You only support this because Apple is doing this. If another big company like Dell or HP or Lenovo did this then you would be against it. You don't have any valid stance in this argument anymore.


Checkmate.
 
You absolutely proved my point. You only support this because Apple is doing this. If another big company like Dell or HP or Lenovo did this then you would be against it. You don't have any valid stance in this argument anymore.


Checkmate.

I don't know if I agree. I don't think the bias towards :apple: necessarily reflects your stance on ODDs.

Apple tends to be a user interface pioneer. In the OS X market that gives them a growing, but niche, installation. In the iOS market that gives them a leadership position. Their approach in both markets is the same. Because I abhor poor user interfaces, I too am biased towards Apple. It would be Apple-like to decide 2012 is the year to stop putting ODDs in Macs. And I would be against that decision, for many of the reasons you've cited.
 
yes, but recent apples success with its ios devices propelled the apple brand in the sky. in the last quarter, the only pc brand that rose was apple, 20%, everybody else fell. so with its power of brand, with its high-quality and beautiful computers, and backbone called ios (people who buy iphones get curious about the whole full-fledged apple experience and want to buy mac - look at mac os x lion, apple knows that, thats why we got launchpad) apple has a very bright future in pc world, do you see how much of an impact had the macbook air, everybody is rushing now to make one of their own, so in the end, it doesnt matter who sells the most, it matters who is the most popular and who has growth - he's the one setting the standards because all the others stance-less and plain companies look up to him. analogy bmw vs renault

Not quite what I was talking about, but close. I was using iOS to refer to how Apple fans make claims that Apple is a trendsetter because they are on top in terms of the smartphone.

So with that logic then Apple is NOT a trendsetter because they are on the bottom with the Macintosh. Even with a 20% increase they are still only 13% of the market . . . third place. Substantial growth . . . sure, but still never going to be "trendsetting" marketshare.

As far as the Air, it was nothing new, and a type of machine that has been revised over and over again since the mid 90s.
 
You absolutely proved my point. You only support this because Apple is doing this. If another big company like Dell or HP or Lenovo did this then you would be against it. You don't have any valid stance in this argument anymore.


Checkmate.

haha jesus arent you something, i havent used odd in 3 years to be precise, and till recently i wanted to buy macbook pro, had the money but refused to buy them until they got rid of odd. because of the recent changes in my life i dont need portability any more, hence why im here on imac forum.

is this a good stance?

you arent very smart, just on the contrary

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Not quite what I was talking about, but close. I was using iOS to refer to how Apple fans make claims that Apple is a trendsetter because they are on top in terms of the smartphone.

So with that logic then Apple is NOT a trendsetter because they are on the bottom with the Macintosh. Even with a 20% increase they are still only 13% of the market . . . third place. Substantial growth . . . sure, but still never going to be "trendsetting" marketshare.

As far as the Air, it was nothing new, and a type of machine that has been revised over and over again since the mid 90s.

no, i dont think thats good logic, the logic which we should use in this case

i think the trendsetter is the most popular brand, no the one who sells the most

you are saying that air isnt moving industry in the way of thin, lightweight, flash, odd-less laptops?
 
no, i dont think thats good logic, the logic which we should use in this case

i think the trendsetter is the most popular brand, no the one who sells the most

you are saying that air isnt moving industry in the way of thin, lightweight, flash, odd-less laptops?

Yes, the trendsetter IS the most popular brand. The iPhone is the trendsetter for sure . . . hands down. The Macintosh is not.

Yes, the Macbook Air IS NOT moving the industry in the way of thin, lightweight, flash, ODD less laptops. Even the ill-fated netbook met all of those requirements. Design of those laptops however, is ruled by Apple . . . but Apple has ALWAYS been king of designing top-notch hardware.

p.s. I want to thank you for the discussion. Don't get too much of this on MR.
 
I'm really beginning to think the next iMac will have the Super Drive taken out, considering they plan to revamp their Macbook Pro lineup to be more Air-like by end of 2012.

This may be the year that Apple ditches CDs entirely. They already started it with the Air, the Mac Mini, now it's time for the rest.
 
haha jesus arent you something, i havent used odd in 3 years to be precise, and till recently i wanted to buy macbook pro, had the money but refused to buy them until they got rid of odd. because of the recent changes in my life i dont need portability any more, hence why im here on imac forum.

is this a good stance?

you arent very smart, just on the contrary

----------



no, i dont think thats good logic, the logic which we should use in this case

i think the trendsetter is the most popular brand, no the one who sells the most

you are saying that air isnt moving industry in the way of thin, lightweight, flash, odd-less laptops?

1) Because I like Physical Media I'm not smart? Maybe physical media just integrates with my life more than it does with yours. I have several regularly used computer programs that are relatively new (released in late 2010-late 2011) that I use daily that came on CDs. Almost all my video games are CD based on my Mac, let alone my PS3 games. I have a lot of movies on Blu-Ray (Which I can't watch on my Mac, though my cousin's dell laptop which has a blu-ray player can). I was simply asking if it was because you were a fanboy that you were supporting the non-ODD movement. You stated that you wern't when I asked. How at all does this make my not very smart? I've been able to eclipse almost every point you've made AND even come up with solutions to sort out the problems.

2) You literally refused to buy a computer JUST because it had a disc drive?

3) I'm responding to your bottom quote: Apple is not the most popular brand when it comes to computers. If it was, why do they have ~11% of the market? The Air didn't start the lightweight computer business. Other computer makers also have their lightweight computers, some like ultrabooks which are newer (The Macbook Air is an ultrabook), some around the same time as the initial launch of the Macbook Air, some even before.

--------------
If Apple doesn't give me the option for an integrated disc drive (because the Apple External SuperDrive isn't very good, like most other external drives), I probably won't buy another computer from them.
 
please help

I'm new to the site and apple in general. My CPU just took a dump and was thinking about jumping over to apple. My wife has an iPhone and loves it but that is the only apple device we currently own. I was have 1000 - 1500 dollars to spend and was planning on heading down to the apple store this weekend, but I wanted to make sure something new wasn't about to come out and ended up here. I have read some of this blog but I'm not very tech savy so most of its over my head. Question is should I wait, will the price change and how long do you guys think the wait will be for a new iMac.
 
Yes, the trendsetter IS the most popular brand. The iPhone is the trendsetter for sure . . . hands down. The Macintosh is not.

The iPhone is unique in that, as a trendsetter, it is also the most popular. This is because it can keep the price point competitive with the followers, because of the huge subsidies it can get from the carriers. I'm not entirely sure how they got carriers to pay a much higher % for iPhone than Android and other devices, but they do it gladly.

The Mac is more like the BMW of computers. It's a trendsetter, but that doesn't mean everyone gets to own one. A lot of people get around in their Chevy's while wishing they had BMWs, and today's Chevy's are catching up to what BMW introduced 5-10 years ago.

Yes, the Macbook Air IS NOT moving the industry in the way of thin, lightweight, flash, ODD less laptops.

Intel and Asus would disagree with you.

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I'm new to the site and apple in general. My CPU just took a dump and was thinking about jumping over to apple. My wife has an iPhone and loves it but that is the only apple device we currently own. I was have 1000 - 1500 dollars to spend and was planning on heading down to the apple store this weekend, but I wanted to make sure something new wasn't about to come out and ended up here. I have read some of this blog but I'm not very tech savy so most of its over my head. Question is should I wait, will the price change and how long do you guys think the wait will be for a new iMac.

Crystal ball says.. we don't know. We have a strong belief a new iMac will come out sometime between March and July. That's all we got. If you need now, you're probably best off just buying now.
 
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