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Why don't apple kill the superdrive?

I asked myself the exact same question yesterday when I swapped out my hard drive in my MBP before I sold it. I literally said (while looking at the superdrive): "who the **** uses this thing? get rid of it already, Apple and give me a 15 hour battery instead."
 
I have never seen so many people argue so hard for a company to implement a more expensive option with lower quality.

Some argue we could get software on flash drives. DVDs, like CDs, laserdiscs, and records before them, can literally be pressed with intact information in a matter of seconds. Even if the physical components of a flash drive cost the same as a DVD, it would take more than twice as long to manufacture and then you would have to put the data onto the drive (can't have the data already stored in memory before the components are put together). This means higher production costs and lower numbers.

Okay, what about downloads? We all download from iTunes, but this is higher cost ($1 per song) and lower quality (MP3, AAC is compressed, data is lost). Not to mention the limited availability. Then you are limited by bandwidth. How long does it take to get your song? I can walk into a CD shop and buy literally gigabytes of data in 1 second (talk about bandwidth).

Then there is the issue of internet availability. The internet is not free. You have to pay to have it in your home. You pay for it in higher product prices at places that "give" it to you. You have to buy additional hardware for it (routers, cables, etc). And, it is not everywhere. Want to work on the road (literally, like on a car trip), you can't get a hot spot. Okay, you can use 3G, but that's an additional cost (cell receiver in computer, data plan paid for monthly). Plus, 3G is definitely not everywhere.

Lastly, you are relinquishing some of your right to your own system and software when you get it solely from the cloud. All the free online data storage that I have seen is a relatively small amount there to entice you to buy greater storage space. Something you would need if anything you ever wanted to store on disc needed to go online. Without a physical copy, you are at the mercy of someone else's server (the company trying to make money off of you) whenever you have a problem and need to reinstall or migrate your software. Software companies would love it if people did it this way. Then you would really be purchasing a license to use the software. Something they could demand you renew, and take away if they so choose. I like it when I pay full price for a product, I actually get it, not some glorified rental.
 
All i can say is I am afraid apple actually listens to the opinons of some of you idiots.
 
col sandurz said:
Some argue we could get software on flash drives. DVDs, like CDs, laserdiscs, and records before them, can literally be pressed with intact information in a matter of seconds. Even if the physical components of a flash drive cost the same as a DVD, it would take more than twice as long to manufacture and then you would have to put the data onto the drive (can't have the data already stored in memory before the components are put together). This means higher production costs and lower numbers.
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For the hundredth time, no optical drive in the notebook does NOT mean no optical drive will ever be connected to the notebook.
 
pooryou said:
OK, then buy a Macbook Air.
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For the hundredth time, the MacBook Air has low specs, while the MacBook Pro doesn't. A MacBook Pro without an optical drive would actually have BETTER specs than one with an optical drive.

If the MacBook Pro loses the optical drive and you want one with an optical drive, should I just tell you to "buy a PC"? As that's the other type of response I hear around here.

pooryou said:
col sandurz is spot on.
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Wrong.

I am tired of refuting the same old arguments every time one of these threads pops up. :rolleyes:
 
Its all 'should', 'could' and 'would'.

Right now MBP has builtin SuperDrive. You can take it, leave it or Optibay it.

Sheeeesh! Now put the handbags away!:p
 
For me for the optical drive to be dead, people need to stop using disk based media.

If I rent a Film, its on a disk. (yes, you can rent via the inet, but more people probably just go to their local blockbuster).

I walk into HMV or Tesco's to buy films or music., it is still all disk based.

Boxed software still mostly comes on discs.

The two most powerful gaming consols are still using and commited (sony at least) to disc based media.

Yes there maybe other options now, but disks still dominate in lots of area's. Downloads isnt really going to be feasible (at least in the UK) until internet speeds increased, maybe some flash drive/memory card option could replace disks eventually, but they would still be more expensive than disks.

The members here are perhaps more tec savvy and forward thinking so may have less use for disks but for a lot of users disc's are still important
 
The point of my post is that once you make it standard practice to leave the optical drive out of the system, the optical drive format will die, and this will be more costly in several ways.

This is actually what happened with floppies. While people used them less and less, stores stopped selling them when companies stopped putting the drives in machines. Floppies were small and essentially useless, they needed to go away because there were better alternatives. If you kill DVD and Blu-Ray there will be no alternative. (As I argued above, flash drives are not an alternative.)

If there is no alternative, we can only get new software from the cloud. This becomes linked to digitally controlled licenses and the net itself. There is more than one program (game) that I have purchased and downloaded through XBox Live without ever having a disc that I need to be connected to the internet just to use it and this does not include online features (one example, TV calibration: c'mon my TV is here and I'm not going to do it with friends). Additionally, the whole used market would die if there was no physical media. I can't resell XBox games I've downloaded and don't like, there is no partial recovery of my money, and nobody gets to then enjoy it. The only reason this doesn't happen with licensing of software now is that we have a physical copy. Imagine if this happened with books (no shops like ½ Price Books), or cars (no Car Max) or even your beloved computers.
 
for as often as I use my superdrive (once a month tops) I would be perfectly willing to plug in an external superdrive via USB when the need actually did arise. It's not like taking it out would mean no one can use CD/DVDs anymore.
 
col sandurz said:
The point of my post is that once you make it standard practice to leave the optical drive out of the system, the optical drive format will die, and this will be more costly in several ways.
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That won't happen due to external optical drives as well as optical drives remaining in desktop computers—if the optical drive format fades away then it probably would have done so either way. ;)

If the next MacBook Pro came without an optical drive (or that option) and I decided to buy it, the first thing I'd do is configure it with an external. It's not that I don't ever use the optical drive, it's because I don't use it enough to justify the space it takes up in a notebook.
 
iMacmatician said:
if the optical drive format fades away then it probably would have done so either way.
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Optical drive formats will fade away when the average user base becomes convinced and believes they don't need them.

iMacmatician said:
I am tired of refuting the same old arguments every time one of these threads pops up. :rolleyes:
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You've haven't actually refuted my hypothesis: If the optical drive formats fade away it will be more expensive and restrictive for the end user.
 
Removal of the Superdrive should be an option in the shopping process and then Apple can gauge how many people want extra battery life the second HD or the Superdrive. I'd rather have the second HD.

Just like Apple gauged how many people needed the Express card slot.

Also, since a lot of people couldn't charge their iPads because their USB ports couldn't charge the device, does this mean the ones that could charge the battery (newer MBP's) can also take advantage of the external superdrive?

I mean why still keep the external Superdrive exclusive to the Air?
 
aibo82 said:
Hi

I was just thinking about this there is alot of wasted space in the macbook pro I mean do we really need a DVD drive now? or Blu-ray anymore?
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:eek: LOL. Uh...yes, we do.

with virtually all music,games,books,media online and in itunes and usb flash storage so cheep!
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Yikes. Okay, a quick list:
  • You don't own content (except most music) you pay for in iTunes. You do own CDs, DVDs, Blu Ray, books, etc.
  • iTunes content is often overpriced
  • iTunes rentals are massively overpriced
  • iTunes selection is poor, as is any single source for content
  • iTunes content lacks the same types of extras
  • Even if there wasn't activation, you'd still have to deal with the issue of storage-there's no method for a normal user to make a back up as permanent as a commercially pressed DVD/Blu Ray
  • iTunes content is typically much lower quality than the physical mediums-ie iTunes "HD" actually competes with decently pressed DVD, not with Blu Ray.
  • iTunes content can only be played on a limited number of devices
  • iTunes content requires unlimited broadband. Broadband adoption isn't even possible in many areas, or is prohibitively expensive for many people, and monthly quotas seem to be getting more common.
 
col sandurz said:
Optical drive formats will fade away when the average user base becomes convinced and believes they don't need them.
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I need the optical drive. I just don't need it enough to have it internally in a notebook. Reasons explained above.

col sandurz said:
You've haven't actually refuted my hypothesis: If the optical drive formats fade away it will be more expensive and restrictive for the end user.
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Isn't it already fading away? Besides, I was never arguing against that in the first place. Also, just because it becomes external doesn't mean it will fade away (probably slowly, but that's already happening). External hard drives aren't fading away are they?

col sandurz said:
Wolfpup, great list! :D I don't think people always get these points.
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No, I get those points, I don't see why an external drive won't work.

CrackedButter said:
Removal of the Superdrive should be an option in the shopping process and then Apple can gauge how many people want extra battery life the second HD or the Superdrive. I'd rather have the second HD.
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The course of action I'd like the most is an option for SuperDrive or no SuperDrive. The no-SuperDrive notebooks could have a second HD, bigger battery, and/or better (hotter) components.

CrackedButter said:
I mean why still keep the external Superdrive exclusive to the Air?
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Let's look at it the other way. Should the MacBook Air get a SuperDrive, and due to the space taken up by it, it will have a ULV CPU, 1 RAM slot, and a 1 hour battery?
 
Right at this second I am burning a DvD with Office 2007 install files and SP updates. Why?

I have to mail them to a remote client whos internet connection is so horrible, he cant download more than 25% from the server without timing out. Me shipping him a burned DvD is the cheapest (and quickest) solution.

I have 7 techs who love to loose their Ultimate Boot Disks. Most of you do not know what that is, but I always have to make copies to replace lost\damage disks.

I would not buy a Mac without an optical drive.

I also bet that you would find that the optical drive is used more the video post Fire Wire or even the card reader. Only option that is probably used more is the USB and possibly headphone jack.

Funny you don't see people asking for them to be removed
 
hcmitchellr said:
Right at this second I am burning a DvD with Office 2007 install files and SP updates. Why?

I have to mail them to a remote client whos internet connection is so horrible, he cant download more than 25% from the server without timing out. Me shipping him a burned DvD is the cheapest (and quickest) solution.

I have 7 techs who love to loose their Ultimate Boot Disks. Most of you do not know what that is, but I always have to make copies to replace lost\damage disks.

I would not buy a Mac without an optical drive.

I also bet that you would find that the optical drive is used more the video post Fire Wire or even the card reader. Only option that is probably used more is the USB and possibly headphone jack.

Funny you don't see people asking for them to be removed
Click to expand...

Some people want it removed, some other people want it as an option.
 
The only way that I would want this is if they included an option for an external superdrive.
 
hcmitchellr said:
I also bet that you would find that the optical drive is used more the video post Fire Wire or even the card reader. Only option that is probably used more is the USB and possibly headphone jack.

Funny you don't see people asking for them to be removed
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The difference is that Firewire and the card reader aren't nearly as big as the optical drive. Removing FW or card reader doesn't free up much room in the notebook. Removing the optical drive does.
 
When the competitors catch up with their laptop battery life then maybe Apple will up the ante by making the SuperDrive external and beefing up the battery life again.

The throughput of USB or FireWire 800 just wouldn't be good enough for an external optical drive. Maybe Apple will wait when USB 3.0 becomes more ubiquitous or Light Peak or next gen FireWire when its available or whatever.
 
Clearly technology is heading in the direction of abandoning optical media, but we are not there yet. Optical disks will still be around for a while yet and many people do still use their drive, even if it may be less than in the past.

5 years from now, perhaps they wont be fitted as standard. But in many countries the Internet just isn't fast enough and established enough to rely totally on online services yet.

Are optical disks probably going to be less and less important? YES

Are they going to disappear any time soon? NO
 
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