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Would you like Apple to get rid of the CD drive?

Would you like Apple to get rid of the CD drive?

  • Yes

    Votes: 39 37.1%

  • No

    Votes: 66 62.9%
  • Total voters
    105
  • Poll closed .
Yeah, now that I think about it, it would be difficult for Apple to assimilate a netbook into their lineup. Basically you would be buying a smaller version of the Macbook Air. Wouldn't that mean they would have to refer to it as a 9" MacBook Air or something? I don't think they would do something like that, because how else would you differentiate between the Macbook Air, and an Apple netbook. They closed the gap between the 13" alum Macbook and the Macbook Pro line, so they would have to do the same if they came out with a netbook (essentially a small and slower version of the MB Air)

Netbooks are catching on, but its not really the students who are buying in, its those who use a computer for basic tasks such as online banking, web browsing, buying stuff on eBay, and just chatting with their family and friends. Of course the main reason for being so successful is the price point.

Of course their will be those who need a optical drive on a daily basis, but for those I'd imagine their would be options.
 
jmann said:
The MacBook Air is ugly. I don't know why they don't make it unibody/same bezel as all the other computers? It sticks out. :p
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The only essential difference in appearance at first glance is the bezel, and the thiness of course. Besides, it is already "unibody"; the MBA is what Apple based the MB/MBP unibody off of.
 
Yeah people said the same about the floppy drive missing from the iMac and that was back when broadband was rare.

Today you have email attachments up to 20MB
Cloud services like Dropbox are free to 2TB
iDisk in MobileMe makes file transfer easy.
Time Machine backs up files.

You have more options for file distribution and archiving yet perhaps out of habit, many of you still use DVD. I guess the question is "when is the changeover going to happen?"

MacBook pro with SDHC slots are yet one more nail in the coffin.
 
nuckinfutz said:
Yeah people said the same about the floppy drive missing from the iMac and that was back when broadband was rare.

Today you have email attachments up to 20MB
Cloud services like Dropbox are free to 2TB
iDisk in MobileMe makes file transfer easy.
Time Machine backs up files.

You have more options for file distribution and archiving yet perhaps out of habit, many of you still use DVD. I guess the question is "when is the changeover going to happen?"

MacBook pro with SDHC slots are yet one more nail in the coffin.
Click to expand...

The change will happen when Apple phases it out of their products, just like when they killed the built in modem, floppies and serial ports
 
I work in music and video, and I use my superdrive all the time for work and personal things.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population still use CD's in their cars, at home, at work, etc. Not everyone has an iPod. Plus DVD's are still the norm, and people are whining about Apple not putting Blu-Ray drives in their computers yet. So this form of media is still very much used.

That being said, if they made external superdrives cheaper in the future for those that still need them, I don't see any reason to keep it in a laptop. But I don't see this all happening for at least 3-5 years at the earliest. Even then it will seem premature to the average consumer.
 
thedarkhorse said:
They did get rid of it, it's called a macbook air.

People who use these computers for work get lots of materials on DVD/CD and need to deliver on DVD/CD, so no apple, don't get rid of it for this one guy.
Click to expand...

but not as powerful as the mbp.
 
drossad said:
I work in music and video, and I use my superdrive all the time for work and personal things.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population still use CD's in their cars, at home, at work, etc. Not everyone has an iPod.
Click to expand...


A recent study said that "damn near everyone and their mother has an iPod in the US, or some type of MP3 player"

get with the times. The actual figure isn't 100%, but I'll be damned if it isn't over 70
 
drossad said:
I work in music and video, and I use my superdrive all the time for work and personal things.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population still use CD's in their cars, at home, at work, etc. Not everyone has an iPod. Plus DVD's are still the norm, and people are whining about Apple not putting Blu-Ray drives in their computers yet. So this form of media is still very much used.

That being said, if they made external superdrives cheaper in the future for those that still need them, I don't see any reason to keep it in a laptop. But I don't see this all happening for at least 3-5 years at the earliest. Even then it will seem premature to the average consumer.
Click to expand...

But Apple makes money from people listening to music on iPods. If they aren't steering people toward iPod/iPhone they're not doing their job.

I see an external DVD being an option but Apple's intentions are so blatantly obvious.

Steve Jobs

"The Apple TV is the DVD for the Internet"

the export options for iPod and Apple TV in the latest software point to the writing on the wall. They are preparing Mac users for an exit to using spinning plastic discs.

Consumers will complain...the adage "old habits are hard to break" rings true here but no one steers people to the promise land like Apple.
 
I'll bet $50 the real reason Steve is on leave is because he is dedicating all of his time to finding a way to deal with the old "habbit-breakers" in their transition to a DVD-less world. (the same people who still haven't gone to Digital TV, and complain about having to get a converter box for their TV called "old Betsy")
 
Unfortunately, they could drop the price of every Mac with an internal drive by $100 and offer a $60 USB add-on option and still get a ton of complaints. It's still a ways off before it's completely gone (maybe next year, though).

I still use DVDs and CDs all the time, but as some others noted, I almost always use an external connected to my MBP. I do use the internal, but it's pretty rare and mainly due to the fact that, well, it's there, I might as well get some use out of it. Almost all my on-the-fly file transfers to someone else who might need something on my comp is done via flash drives.

I haven't purchased a portable USB powered DVD drive yet, but it is likely in my future and will also likely find itself sitting on the shelf next to my USB powered floppy drive not too long after that.
 
Semiopaque said:
Unfortunately, they could drop the price of every Mac with an internal drive by $100 and offer a $60 USB add-on option and still get a ton of complaints. It's still a ways off before it's completely gone (maybe next year, though).

I still use DVDs and CDs all the time, but as some others noted, I almost always use an external connected to my MBP. I do use the internal, but it's pretty rare and mainly due to the fact that, well, it's there, I might as well get some use out of it. Almost all my on-the-fly file transfers to someone else who might need something on my comp is done via flash drives.

I haven't purchased a portable USB powered DVD drive yet, but it is likely in my future and will also likely find itself sitting on the shelf next to my USB powered floppy drive not too long after that.
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If they just took it out, they would get about 23456^10 complaints in one day. If they took it out and used the 20% extra space for a new amazing feature, then not so much.
 
crackbookpro said:
agree, very poor argument. I can think of so many objections, the list goes on & on already from some of the previous posts.
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There is no argument even coming from your side other than a condemnation of my fallacy to show a point.

I wouldn't mind entertaining some ideas if you have them.
 
wankey said:
There is no argument even coming from your side other than a condemnation of my fallacy to show a point.

I wouldn't mind entertaining some ideas if you have them.
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I think the reason he can "think of so many objections" is because he is 78 and he doesn't want to deal with "them new technologies":p
 
http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/apps-and-utilities.html

Remote Install Mac OS X

Install Mac OS X over the air.
Remote Install Mac OS X helps you install Mac OS X wirelessly on a MacBook Air computer in just a few steps. The thin and light MacBook Air does not have a built-in DVD drive, but with Remote Install Mac OS X, you complete the installation over a wireless network.
Click to expand...

Export options

overlay_quicktime_04_20090608.jpg
 
It's funny reading through this thread the replies people are making. Like usual, a lot of people are taking this way too serious... as if Apple will remove the CDROM tomorrow.

The main motivation behind my thread was to create a brainstorm kinda of environment. CDROMs ARE a thing of the past, while you still use it, there are technologies which are vastly superior.

The idea is that you don't HAVE to lug a CDROM external drive around, and I'm sure the majority of MBAir users don't even bother.

Another idea is the extra space that's taken up by the cdrom could be made to do something better. Imagine, if you will, the current unibody macbook pro without the side cdrom. Firstly, the entire right side could be filled with a plethora of connectors going from SVideo to HDMI for all we care. The extra space created by the vacuum of the CDROM drive can house a second harddrive (taking only 1/3 of the space) doing RAID, housing an much bigger cooling device, a much bigger and thus quieter fan, and a huge amount of other things.

Apple, being the first to innovate the non-removable laptop battery (I have had this wish for years... I have NEVER removed my laptop battery other than to replace ram or to hard hard reboot)

I am merely looking towards the future. In 5 years, what will the laptop scene look like? NetBooks have already taken off like crazy, and they don't contain a CDROM... however they are ergonomically stupid and an eye strain to use. What if using dual band wireless N we can transmit files fast enough so you can have an entirely seperate DVD-RW Burner dock somewhere in your house and you can merely sent files to it.

I might be just dreaming, but something needs to change. CDs are as good as the cassettes and vinyl records were.

And please, for people who are mocking this thread and asking why I created... don't bother replying if you have nothing good to say.
 
At the apple design department meeting: "oh my god, we just read in some internet forum that some user doesn't need an optical drive, so let's just no longer equip our computers with it."

I have news for you, myself and many many others still use their optical drive every day. I use it for installing and playing games - it's nice to have the box in the shelf for the collection and going to the shop to buy a game beats a 10 hours steam download - and to rip my cds and sometimes dvds. Yes I buy my music only as cds, I would NEVER pay for downloaded mp3s. I like the better quality and the same and sometimes even cheaper price for a physical product, and a nice booklet.

If you don't use it fine, but many people still use it and need it.

You know what I do not use? The camera at the top of my screen. But I don't start a thread that it has to go away. ;)
 
Techhie said:
If they just took it out, they would get about 23456^10 complaints in one day. If they took it out and used the 20% extra space for a new amazing feature, then not so much.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure I agree with that 100%. From what I've seen, if its taken out you get a million complaints. If it's taken out and replaced with something else some people might use, you still get a million complaints but you also get 100,000 people who say they like it. Even if people learn to like it, the initial reaction of most seems to be to freak out.

Maybe they're only going to release Snow Leopard on an SD card :p
 
How about this RIDICULOUS CRAZY IDEA...

Apple could offer models with or without the superdrive and the ones without would have the additional candy than make possible with all that space left and the superdrive ones would be regular.
:eek:
 
wankey said:
Anyone with me?
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Yeah man I'm with you:)

Manufactures should give the OS on a USB key. Then optical drives become completely useless.

PS. I don't want more hardware instead, I want a slimmer 13" Macbook Pro, not much bigger than Macbook Air.
 
It's what I like about the Mac platform.

Apple doesn't impede progress by pandering to the those afraid to move off of legacy technology. They tend to be pretty definitive.

The lastest generation of macs saw DVI get replaced by DisplayPort. There were complaints about why Apple was moving to a new technology but the end game is always the same. Apple always wants to move to superior technology but their idea of what's superior is likely different from many consumers.

Optical is on borrowed time. Apple is not investing in the format with significant software updates or adding Blu-ray to appease fans.

Online storage is going to be the next "free email" rush. Eventually Google will field an entry to match the growing list of companies giving free bandwith up.

For some of you it may dawn on you, as your Superdrive clatters it's way to recording your data, that you could have just pushed the data to cloud storage and had your recipient retrieve it.

In a year there will be too too many file distribution sources to ignore and Apple will pull the optical drive as a standard item and the vast majority of complainers will be the "I'm set in my ways curmudgjeons"
 
chaosbunny said:
At the apple design department meeting: "oh my god, we just read in some internet forum that some user doesn't need an optical drive, so let's just no longer equip our computers with it."

I have news for you, myself and many many others still use their optical drive every day. I use it for installing and playing games - it's nice to have the box in the shelf for the collection and going to the shop to buy a game beats a 10 hours steam download - and to rip my cds and sometimes dvds. Yes I buy my music only as cds, I would NEVER pay for downloaded mp3s. I like the better quality and the same and sometimes even cheaper price for a physical product, and a nice booklet.

If you don't use it fine, but many people still use it and need it.

You know what I do not use? The camera at the top of my screen. But I don't start a thread that it has to go away. ;)
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Samething applied to the expresscard slot...some use it but the mass majority didn't. I don't recall the last time I needed to use a cd either than to reformat. I don't care what outstanding argument you may come up with. The industry in general is moving away from physical media. Deal with it. A lot of people don't want anything to change...but it's going to with or without your stamp of approval.
 
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