Would you prefer the next MacBook Pro to not have an Optical Drive

[Tilpots]

External Optical Drive
it's slim, light-weight and cheap

If Optical Drive's are so unimportant right now, why would you even want an external one at all? Oh right, optical drives are actually useful in today's world.

And make that font just a wee bit bigger next time. It really lends credibility to what you're saying.

 

[griefrev]

I would prefer a removable optical drive in a modular bay. Removing it saves weight but not bulk which is a fair compromise. This method also enables swapping it out for an extra hard drive or other kind of removable media drive.

My old Pismo Powerbook had that. I could swap out the CD-ROM drive for a floppy drive. Came in handy at the time. However, I would welcome an external DVD drive if it helped battery life and performance.

 

[Consultant]

You can remove the optical drive for a second harddrive with after market accessory.

 

[miata]

You can remove the optical drive for a second harddrive with after market accessory.

True, but what if you just need one drive?

And even if you wanted 2 drives...

1) you have to pay for something that you throw away
2) you also have to purchase and adapter which is not cheap
3) you only recover about half of the space
4) the new configuration is not supported.

 

[Auzburner]

I'd like space for a second hard disc in my 17" MBP. I like the large screen and 1200P display, therefore I still want the width. It'd be neat for the machine to be thinner, but that's not a priority to me as the ports require such depth on the notebook. I never use the optical drive, so anything else useful would be nice.

 

[demonsavatar]

Shifting to external should be the way to go. It's the same way they phased out floppy drives.

Now if software vendors would start selling software digitally or on USB thumb drives (like Apple supplies OS X on a thumbdrive with the MB Air), then we would really see people stop caring for optical drives on computers all together.

Getting over optical discs entirely would require streaming 1080p movies. American broadband that can handle that is still 5-10 years away, so Blu-Ray will persist for a while.

 

[thedarkhorse]

Seeing as I use the optical drive maybe once or twice each year on my macbook pro I would love to see them remove it in leu of more battery and Flash memory main drive + 2.5" HDD/SSD secondary. I have a $50 external burner if I really need to burn or read an optical disc on my laptop, it's way faster and not as prone to failure(my mbp no longer can burn discs for some reason).

 

[Jaro65]

Now if software vendors would start selling software digitally or on USB thumb drives (like Apple supplies OS X on a thumbdrive with the MB Air), then we would really see people stop caring for optical drives on computers all together.

The Mac app store is on its way....

 

[SidBala]

I'd like space for a second hard disc in my 17" MBP. I like the large screen and 1200P display, therefore I still want the width. It'd be neat for the machine to be thinner, but that's not a priority to me as the ports require such depth on the notebook. I never use the optical drive, so anything else useful would be nice.

I think that the MBP 17 is the only Macbook that is actually usable for work. Love mine. And I completely agree with you. I never use the optical drive. Would be better if I could add a battery on there instead.

 

[aimbdd]

Shifting to external should be the way to go. It's the same way they phased out floppy drives.

Now if software vendors would start selling software digitally or on USB thumb drives (like Apple supplies OS X on a thumbdrive with the MB Air), then we would really see people stop caring for optical drives on computers all together.

Getting over optical discs entirely would require streaming 1080p movies. American broadband that can handle that is still 5-10 years away, so Blu-Ray will persist for a while.

I love these posts. Macs don't support blue ray anyway.... lol.
So thats not even a point.
Yes external, because you can add that after the fact, but you cant add more battery after its built..

 

[AppleMacFinder]

If Optical Drive's are so unimportant right now, why would you even want an external one at all? Oh right, optical drives are actually useful in today's world.

And make that font just a wee bit bigger next time. It really lends credibility to what you're saying.

The real hi-end GPU and an improved battery life are much more important than the internal OD.

 

[Tilpots]

The real hi-end GPU and an improved battery life are much more important than the internal OD.

Than why do the majority of Macs and other computers still have the OD right now?

 

[AppleMacFinder]

Than why do the majority of Macs and other computers still have the OD right now?

The real hi-end GPU and an improved battery life are much more important than the internal OD.

That is why they will drop it soon (next refresh)

Mac Pro will keep it, it has a plenty of free space inside.

 

[mcvaughan]

Remove and make it an option as an external drive, like the Air.

 

[midgetsanchez]

I removed my optical drive on the day I got my 13" and put in an optibay/SSD. The optical drive sits in an external usb enclosure now, and hasn't even been used once.


I have no need to burn cds or dvds of any kind, and I download all my software. Removable media is approaching obsoletion.

 

[Tilpots]

The real hi-end GPU and an improved battery life are much more important than the internal OD.

That is why they will drop it soon (next refresh)

Mac Pro will keep it, it has a plenty of free space inside.

You still haven't answered the question: why do the majority of Macs and other computers still have the OD right now? What has changed? Have they been obsolete the whole time?

I know the upcoming Mac App Store will make a big difference, but that's not even here yet. The iTunes store has offered music and movies for years as downloads. Internet speeds have not seen any type of major leap recently. So what has suddenly made the optical drive obsolete?

And please know that I do foresee them being dropped down the line, but not in the next revision. Just want to know why so many people are coming out of the woodwork since the MBA's latest release screaming for the demise of the optical drive.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

I have no need to burn cds or dvds of any kind, and I download all my software. Removable media is approaching obsoletion.

I burned two DVDs yesterday for some stuff I needed of off MSDN. I know, i'm old school. (I also saved the ISOs to my network share).

 

[jmazzamj]

I voted NO, but i don't think the optical media is at a dead end.

 

[Nermal]

I'd rather have it upgraded to Blu-ray (with playback support). I can dream...

 

[Loono]

As we know about the Intel-Nvidia feud, it is not physically possible for 13' macbook pros to have 3 chips hence being stuck with C2D or go will intel i Series but suffer with intel's poor integrated graphic cards.
Exclusively removing the optical drive for the 13' macbook pro will allow space for the Intel i series + good graphics. As a result, maybe Apple could ship the 13' with an external optical drive.

However the 15' + 17' will still contain the internal optical drive as of now.

 

[Auzburner]

As we know about the Intel-Nvidia feud, it is not physically possible for 13' macbook pros to have 3 chips hence being stuck with C2D or go will intel i Series but suffer with intel's poor integrated graphic cards.
Exclusively removing the optical drive for the 13' macbook pro will allow space for the Intel i series + good graphics. As a result, maybe Apple could ship the 13' with an external optical drive.

However the 15' + 17' will still contain the internal optical drive as of now.

That'd be a great idea! A GPU in the 13" as an option to the SuperDrive! A 13" MBP with a higher resolution display and the discrete card would be sweet.

 

[Loono]

Also to distinguish between the macbook and macbook pro, the 13' macbook will have Intel's i series with Intel's integrated graphic card only (+optical drive) wheras the macbook pro will have Intel's i series with Nvidia dedicated graphics card but without an optical drive.
Cause at the moment between the two, spec wise it is very similar.

 

[mikethebigo]

I'm almost 100% positive the next MacBook Pro 13" refresh will involve removing the optical drive and including a GPU instead. It's the only way that Apple can keep the tech current and still allow "Pro-like" operations such as OpenCL (for reasons already discussed above).

Now what I REALLY want to see is an anti-glare, or at least no glass, version of the 13 MBP.

 

[bniu]

get rid of the thing. Any time I actually need an optical drive, i'm sitting at a table and the usb superdrive would work just fine. It's also easier to get the usb superdrive serviced without leaving my MBP at the genius bar for hours.

especially on the 13", the space could definitely be used for two additional RAM slots as well as room for a 330M discrete graphics card, which will also enable the 13" MBP to move onto the Core iSeries of CPUs.

any leftover space can be used for a MBA style SSD and the space vacated by the HDD can be used to extend the battery and give us 12-15 hour battery life. You can never have too much battery life.

 

[calev]

I cant believe this many people want to get rid of the optical drive. i love being able to back up all my movies: and dvd storage is so cheap. And the idea of just using an external drive is ok but its annoying having to carry an external drive around. Floppy disc went out because they could store so little data . CD's held like 500 times as much data. Flash memory is still very expensive compared to optical storage. I would love to have a separate usb stick for all my movies and cd's but i cant justify the cost when i can burn it to a disc for 10 cents. I always thought optical media would just complement flash memory as the two grew in complexity. Maybe i'm wrong but i don't think its time to abandon ship. Some people still want a high quality computer with a bluray drive and apple should cater to those needs even if we have to pay a premium for it. they could do just like the mac mini where they offer an alternative for people who don't want the optical drive and just want to use on board memory.Although i would be willing to compromise with an external drive if we could Install our own GPU's.I mean Wow no body else is still using core duo's at these prices.What ever though i have to have everything apple craps out i don't know why its just so shiny.