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

[nuckinfutz]

Apple isn't about choice - they know what you need - and so shall it be.

Whereas many high-end Windows laptops offer you the choice to stick in that bay what you will: optical media, extra hard drive, extra battery (see ThinkPad). All those complaining about the disappearing express card slot should be pissing and moaning about the inflexibility to swap out the optical drive as well.

Which is probably good. My psychologist say that too many choices isn't good. I don't give my son that many choices because he just becomes deadlocked.

The problem with swappable media bays is cost of the accessories and hey affect how small you can make the laptop.

Apple will make the decision eventually to yank the optical drives and people will piss and moan about it and then open their eyes and see the plethora of file sharing options that they never bothered to learn.

I heard the same "is Apple crazy" when they nixed the floppy from the original iMac. At that time people were yammering about how Zip drives were going to be the next file interchange format (much like the yammering about Blu-ray today)

external optical drivers are but a mere inconvenience. They don't prevent you from accomplishing your goals but the truth is a 3Ghz Intel mobile chip easts up 35 watts of power max. The next quad core Clarksfield chips coming will be 45 watts max. Apple's got to find a way to deal with another 10 watts and frankly the optical drive is probably gonna go and you can "really" forget about Blu-ray as those drives are even hotter.

 

[wankey]

I'd agree. Getting rid of it provides a lot more options. Heat dissipation being one. Memory stick, wired/wireless DVD drive when you need it...

Hell- the space to have a higher TDP with better cooling, more RAM, hotter CPU, better GPU... I wonder if Apple is tempted to. Like a MacBook Air Pro.

Ah yes, I never thought about the higher TDP meaning MUCH faster processors being able to pretend to be laptop processing.

As for downloading OS X, you can simply get it in a USB stick. I don't see how hard it is to go to the apple store, get them to store OS X on your iPhone even or whatever device you need. You can get it for free, and all you need is a cd key which you buy.

I think there will always people who are resistant to change. Having music on CDs is hilarious if you consider the amount of music I have in my iTunes library vs the amount of CDs I have now. The sound quality is "good enough" for 99% of the population, those audiophiles out there who seem to want cd quality should look for more hefty lossless formats instead.

As for bluray, it's a done and done technology. The future is no longer the manufacture of meaningless mechanical disks of storage. The future is content delivery over the internet and onto solid state drives.

When our generation of university students go into the workforce, we will all be using broadband. US broadband penetration is nearly 90% among active internet users. I can say the same for Canada from what I can tell (well, from what I can tell it's 100%)

In essence, I don't even have to ask Apple to do what I'd like it to do. It's the kind of company that pushes the industry forward. Wait a few years, we'll see when Apple pushes the industry out of the CD business

 

[J&JPolangin]

...were I work a DVD-RW drive is a requirement as no USB drives are allowed...

 

[queshy]

Of all the laptops I've owned, I've used the CD ROM for 2 purposes. To burn a friend a hard copy of something (when I don't have a usb key) or when I need to reinstall my OS.

99.9999999% of the time, it has sat there dormat, like a tumor, except not drawing any power. I call forth to anyone and everyone that agrees with me that the CD/DVD/BD ROM is a thing of the past. In its place has risen USB 2.0 (soon to be USB 3.0), eSATA, Firewire 800 SD Cards.. etc etc. There is no point in relying in these disks that really don't hold a lot of information.

Imagine a MacBook Pro without a internal CD ROM, just look at this picture:

That's twice the space of a notebook hard drive there. You can put entire coolers there to make your computer never run hotter than your palm, add completely new sets of hardware, anything but a pointlessly silly mechanical device for inserting large disks that should've gone out decades ago.

They can sell OS X on a 5 gig Apple styled USB key. And if you already have the USB key, you can just download it from their site like the current digital downloaders work now and load it onto your USB. They can even have an app store in the future where you don't need ot go to the store to get applications (heck they have an app store now in the sense of illegal torrenting)

The future is CD-less laptops with vastly superior cooling solutions and the like, or vastly miniaturized form factors with a plethora of connectors of BOTH sides of the Mac.

Anyone with me?

You make some excellent points. Forget comparing it to a hard drive though -- why not make MORE of the machine battery? Imagine a MBP with a 15 hour battery life!

I use my MacBook Air for many tasks, and never need an optical drive. I have an optical drive in my iMac, but I rarely use it. You're right - too much physical space, not high yield enough. They spend so much time cramming everything into tiny spaces then they waste it by putting in a huge optical drive.

 

[t0mat0]

You make some excellent points. Forget comparing it to a hard drive though -- why not make MORE of the machine battery? Imagine a MBP with a 15 hour battery life!

I use my MacBook Air for many tasks, and never need an optical drive. I have an optical drive in my iMac, but I rarely use it. You're right - too much physical space, not high yield enough. They spend so much time cramming everything into tiny spaces then they waste it by putting in a huge optical drive.

Wouldn't Apple be doing this for the Tablet? 9 inch screen = no cd player, no? MIDs would get that extra boost from not being seen as necessarily needing to have one, if they showed the power benefit.

 

[woodekm]

Give it time ...Grasshopper.


Time will tell.

(unless you end up with your balls in a sling).

 

[chaosbunny]

Having music on CDs is hilarious if you consider the amount of music I have in my iTunes library vs the amount of CDs I have now. The sound quality is "good enough" for 99% of the population, those audiophiles out there who seem to want cd quality should look for more hefty lossless formats instead.

If you downloaded all these songs in your iTunes library illegally you are a thief, if you bought them in the iTunes store you were ripped off for buying less quality drm stuff for the same or more money than a CD - without a often nicely designed booklet. Both is pretty hilarious in my opinion.

 

[kinkster]

The optical drive needs to go down in flames. I am replacing my optical drive with a hard drive from Optibay. I can always use extra storage space.

I'm thinking of getting one and installing a small ssd. That way I don't have to spend allot on the ssd but i still get fast speeds for OSX and my main apps/files. and then plenty of storage from the main drive.

and a good dead-end-conversation starter when someone asks to use my optical drive =)

 

[Barney0]

Optical drives will still be used in the future!

Of all the laptops I've owned, I've used the CD ROM for 2 purposes. To burn a friend a hard copy of something (when I don't have a usb key) or when I need to reinstall my OS.

99.9999999% of the time, it has sat there dormat, like a tumor, except not drawing any power. I call forth to anyone and everyone that agrees with me that the CD/DVD/BD ROM is a thing of the past. In its place has risen USB 2.0 (soon to be USB 3.0), eSATA, Firewire 800 SD Cards.. etc etc. There is no point in relying in these disks that really don't hold a lot of information.

Imagine a MacBook Pro without a internal CD ROM, just look at this picture:

That's twice the space of a notebook hard drive there. You can put entire coolers there to make your computer never run hotter than your palm, add completely new sets of hardware, anything but a pointlessly silly mechanical device for inserting large disks that should've gone out decades ago.

They can sell OS X on a 5 gig Apple styled USB key. And if you already have the USB key, you can just download it from their site like the current digital downloaders work now and load it onto your USB. They can even have an app store in the future where you don't need ot go to the store to get applications (heck they have an app store now in the sense of illegal torrenting)

The future is CD-less laptops with vastly superior cooling solutions and the like, or vastly miniaturized form factors with a plethora of connectors of BOTH sides of the Mac.

Anyone with me?

I'm half with you, personally yes the extra space/battery would be nice but there is a hell of a future for discs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8021012.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8060082.stm

Read these articles for example, imagine discs with a 1.5 tb capacity. Then you'll be wishing you never swapped your optical drive over for another hard drive.

For me, optical drives are still very much in use and the future will bring a lot more to offer than DVD and blu-ray.

 

[Kristalghost]

my opinion

okay I'm new to mac (don't even have mine yet) but my point of view is to keep it.
1. many of you may not use it but there are still those among of the mac users who game, not caring what the general public thinks of gaming and macs.
2. dvd's: how many people buy a big screen or connect there mac to a tv to see a movie or even watch it on there pc?
3. audio: how many people are going to buy a mac if they have to rebuy all there music they have on disc's?
4. bootcamp: even if you can make mac work without a dvd drive, the people who use bootcamp for work/school are ****ed.

my sugestion is: give people the option. and a matter of fact is they have with the macbook air. if they make that a little bit stronger we wouldn't be having this discussion and maybe even ought to

 

[kinkster]

I don't think they should offer it yet. I'm glad it will be going in the long run though, it means they'll be able to design their laptops that much smaller and lighter.

At first I think Apple should offer it as a build to order option, where you can have the optical drive replaced by either another hdd/ssd or maybe even a larger battery.

And once they want to start designing computers without optical drives at all they could always have an external drive thrown in for free(wouldn't cost them much). Assuming Apple would want to make the transition before other companies.

 

[Whackintosh]

As someone who does film festival programming, the last thing I would want is a notebook that doesn't have an optical drive. Whenever I travel to festivals and markets for scouting, filmmakers pass me screeners on dvd, which I often will view between meetings, on a long drive / flight, in my hotel so as to give next-day feedback etc. I regularly find my optical drive to be invaluable. Certainly, I could accomplish much of the same with an external drive, but that would be cumbersome and clunky.

 

[eastercat]

I think there will always people who are resistant to change. Having music on CDs is hilarious if you consider the amount of music I have in my iTunes library vs the amount of CDs I have now. The sound quality is "good enough" for 99% of the population, those audiophiles out there who seem to want cd quality should look for more hefty lossless formats instead.

It's not about being resistant to change. It's about reality.
My car has a six CD changer. It's only four years old and I plan on keeping it for another six years. Because it's not possible to install an AUX input, I will stay with my CDs until then. Unless I want to be stuck listening to the same six CDs for the next six years, you better believe that a CD/DVD burner is a necessity.
You're right that the digital music is overtaking music on physical media. However, reality needs time to catch up. You can argue that those of us who need a burner can just attach one along. However, that solution is cumbersome, especially considering it's the majority of the populace who need that burner. Why should we be inconvenienced?
If you are really a big proponent of getting rid of the media drive, put your money where your mouth is. Buy a MBA and convince your forward looking friends to do the same.

 

[NintendoFan]

Which is probably good. My psychologist say that too many choices isn't good. I don't give my son that many choices because he just becomes deadlocked.

The problem with swappable media bays is cost of the accessories and hey affect how small you can make the laptop.

Apple will make the decision eventually to yank the optical drives and people will piss and moan about it and then open their eyes and see the plethora of file sharing options that they never bothered to learn.

I heard the same "is Apple crazy" when they nixed the floppy from the original iMac. At that time people were yammering about how Zip drives were going to be the next file interchange format (much like the yammering about Blu-ray today)

external optical drivers are but a mere inconvenience. They don't prevent you from accomplishing your goals but the truth is a 3Ghz Intel mobile chip easts up 35 watts of power max. The next quad core Clarksfield chips coming will be 45 watts max. Apple's got to find a way to deal with another 10 watts and frankly the optical drive is probably gonna go and you can "really" forget about Blu-ray as those drives are even hotter.

I believe Apple will probably use Arrandale and not Clarksfield as their next mobile chips. However, I agree with you that the CD-ROM must go.

 

[Blue Velvet]

As someone who does film festival programming, the last thing I would want is a notebook that doesn't have an optical drive.

Stop making sense.

I use my DVD drive quite often too. Uploading a couple of Gb of RAW files or a complete project file for a client would take a day or two, when it's far easier and faster to burn them onto a DVD and express-post them or courier them across town. It's a bandwidth thing, I guess.

And yes, I buy music CDs. It's not about being resistant to change. It's just that they're still the best quality audio carrier that has broad consumer acceptance... and once ripped, you still have an archival lossless backup which is completely independent of needing computer hardware to use.

Somehow, on its main range of laptops, I don't think we'll see Apple make the first move on this. We'll have them on the general range of Mac laptops as long as OS installs and creative/productivity apps come on physical media. Put a Mac without a CD drive next to a PC laptop at the same price in the same display space in a store, and the general consumer will see the lack of a drive as a bug, not a feature. The MacBook Air is a special case in itself, as consumers understand that its main selling point is its lightness and size, not its capabilities or versatility from a technical viewpoint.

Once again we see the same generally unimaginative assumption on these forums, which seems to be: If I don't use it, then I can't understand why it has a use. There is also a corollary, which is: I have fast and plenty of broadband, therefore the whole of Apple's market does.

 

[t0mat0]

Wonder if Apple will open this up - Who thinks a Tablet in a bigger format than 9-10 inches would have a Superdrive?

 

[Semiopaque]

Stop making sense.

I use my DVD drive quite often too. Uploading a couple of Gb of RAW files or a complete project file for a client would take a day or two, when it's far easier and faster to burn them onto a DVD and express-post them or courier them across town. It's a bandwidth thing, I guess.

And yes, I buy music CDs. It's not about being resistant to change. It's just that they're still the best quality audio carrier that has broad consumer acceptance... and once ripped, you still have an archival lossless backup which is completely independent of needing computer hardware to use.

Somehow, on its main range of laptops, I don't think we'll see Apple make the first move on this. We'll have them on the general range of Mac laptops as long as OS installs and creative/productivity apps come on physical media. Put a Mac without a CD drive next to a PC laptop at the same price in the same display space in a store, and the general consumer will see the lack of a drive as a bug, not a feature. The MacBook Air is a special case in itself, as consumers understand that its main selling point is its lightness and size, not its capabilities or versatility from a technical viewpoint.

Once again we see the same generally unimaginative assumption on these forums, which seems to be: If I don't use it, then I can't understand why it has a use. There is also a corollary, which is: I have fast and plenty of broadband, therefore the whole of Apple's market does.

I don't think proposing the eventual elimination of the optical drive is unimaginative by any means. The general idea in this thread is that the future, not necessarily now or even soon, is in laptops without optical drives. As some have posted cloud computing etc. as an alternative, I agree, that even with today's speeds, it's just not a viable option even in mid term future.

However, there are definitely some very promising technologies that could easily replace optical discs. Specifically, SDXC. They're smaller than discs, more durable, and potentially, can hold more data (up to 0.5 TB more than the new optical discs on the horizon mentioned in another post). Most importantly, they're a lot faster than optical discs, possibly up to 300 MB/s.

Pricing will be the biggest issue, though. Unless higher capacity optical discs like Blu-Ray come down in price, I don't think they'll be able to compete with the high end SD cards of tomorrow (which seem to show consistently falling prices over time).

Like you, I also still buy music CDs - because they are still the cheapest highest quality way to purchase music, however, if I could just download the same product at the same price or cheaper, I might choose that route or, alternatively, if they came on SD cards - that too would be a viable option for me (I've seen some albums on cards at Best Buy before, however they are more expensive, so again, the pricing factor comes in).

 

[lyl]

no way
i need that

 

[nukiduz]

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

There has been a lot of discussion at this thread about the possibility of Apple removing the CD drive from their notebooks. There are a lot of opinions and I'd like to know how many of you would agree with this.

If you agree, argue your reasons (thinnes, more battery life, storage...) and if you don't, tell us what do you use it for and how often. Thanks everybody!

I'll start

I rarely use my CD drive. I don't burn DVDs since we all have flash drives, don't rent movies, don't buy music cds... So, I'd like it to be removed if that way we could get more light, thin notebooks.

 

[queshy]

Wouldn't Apple be doing this for the Tablet? 9 inch screen = no cd player, no? MIDs would get that extra boost from not being seen as necessarily needing to have one, if they showed the power benefit.

Personally, I think we're pretty far away from an apple tablet. They're not just going to make any old tablet and put an Apple logo on it - they're going to do something revolutionary with it, just like they did with the iPhone. There are a lot of "questions" about such a tablet. How much do they price it at? Will it have a physical kb? etc etc.

Battery life is just so important, and I can only imagine how far they can go by removing the optical drive in their larger machines.

Why not offer 2 models? One model of the MBP has the optical drive, and the other doesn't - replace it by more battery. Let the customer decide.

 

[Philflow]

Yes please. Get rid of them and save weight.

Give me the OS on a USB key.

 

[nukiduz]

There are very interesting point in this thread but couldn't figure out how many of you would like Apple to get rid of the CD drive. I think it's an interesting question and I've started a poll about it. Please vote!

 

[tempusfugit]

i think they should keep adding more cd drives


the more the better.

 

[spaceboots06]

i think they should keep adding more cd drives


the more the better.

Funny. I had a dream last night, not kidding, that my 13" MacBook Pro had two optical drives on top of each other... on the left side.

I actually like optical drives. External drives could do the job but cds are convenient, if you think about it. It is like switching cable providers. Yes, you may pay more for your current current provider, but it's not a big deal when it comes to facing the fact that you potentially would have to rewire your entire home. Bad example but yeah.

 

[Porco]

Yes and No, but I voted no. By that I mean there should be the option to have more macs without the optical drive if that's what you want, but it's way way too soon to get rid of optical drives in all macs yet. In fact I want a Blu-ray option. So that's the point, I think Apple should give us all the option either way.

Of course strictly speaking there is nothing much stopping anyone who wants to remove the optical drive from doing so, is there?