New Apple MacBooks - Still no Blu-ray

[CHEЯNOБLY!]

The new Apple MacBooks were released, and still no blu-ray optical drive.

Looks like they're sticking to the late Steve Job's comments that "blu-ray was a bag or hurt" and will soon be replaced by streaming.

Well, that was 2008 and it is now almost 2012. Blu-ray sales have continued to rise year after year, and will probably surpass DVD sales soon. Will streaming replace optical discs? Yes, but until you can show me a streaming movie that looks and sound as good as a blu-ray in 1080p, count me out.

I also don't appreciate Apple pushing their iTunes HD streaming product down consumers throats. Let the consumer decide for themselves. And on top of that, iTunes HD is so restrictive that its more like prolonged renting then actual owning any of the content they sell.

It would be nice to watch blu-rays on a MacBook while traveling. Boo to Apple.

[AreaUnderTheCurve]

They'd probably jack the price up by $500 if you chose a BD drive.

Anyway, they like their proprietary nonsense, so don't expect anything remotely sane coming from them. They probably have their minds set on more pressing matters, like anti-competitiveness and complaining about little trivial features no their devices like making a call from a number in an email.

[MikeCL]

I thought Apple was a member of the blu-ray group?

[One4Deuce]

I'll be in the market for a new laptop within the next year probably, I'd like to consider a MacBook but without Blu-ray support, I will not be buying.

[nathanp]

I was hoping that when Jobs croaked, they'd finally smarten up and add blu-ray, until that happens I will no be buying their laptops.

[CHEЯNOБLY!]

Originally Posted by JLTucker

They'd probably jack the price up by $500 if you chose a BD drive.

Fine. As a consumer I would like to just have to option to decide for myself. Throw it on as a optional add-on. Heck, Apple offers a $1,100 solid state drive add-on. No, reason to leave out the option. It so blatantly obvious what their agenda is.

[MikeCL]

Yeah I thought so they were a member of the Blu-Ray group

Apple’s shun of Blu-ray makes no sense. It joined the Blu-Ray association in 2005 yet it ships millions of antiquated “SuperDrives” in it’s Mac Pro, iMac, MacBook and Mac mini each year. What gives?

The answer, after the jump…

Jobs famously called Blu-ray a “bag of hurt” in October 2008 stating that Apple’s “waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.” After the iPad announcement in January 2010 Steve Jobs toed the company line, reportedly telling his staff that the company is taking a “wait and see” approach to Blu-ray, waiting to implement it until Blu-ray sales “take off.”

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/appl...-conflict/5928

[ObiTrentKenobi]

Apple makes their own standard: And it will always be different than everybody else.

That is why, dear children, they do not have the majority of the marketshare - nor will they - at least for some time.

Besides, could you imaging the cost of a Macbook Pro WITH a bluray drive and software? It would be exponentially more laughable than the current costs even.

Apple Inc. will continue to focus on one product at a time, which would be the iPad and iPhone. Optical drives in their desktop/laptop line are far away on the back burners right now.

A product based on aesthetics will continue to be, as it always has been, a heartless gimmick for a niche group

[Canada]

They won't put a drive in because they want you to download movies off of the itunes plain and simple.

[ZoetMB]

What are you talking about? There weren't any new Macs released recently. The current MacBook Pros were released on May 24th, 2011. I'd expect new models somewhere in the late January to mid-February timeframe.

And if the rumors are correct, the next MacBook Pros aren't going to have any internal CD/DVD drive. I hope that's not the case, but it seems to be where they're going and if you read the various Mac Rumor forums, that seems to be what most of those types of users want.

BD is not going to happen for the Mac, at least not as an internal device. Apple's vision is not one of physical media.

The only possibility is the integration of BD in the rumored Apple TV. But I don't think it will happen there either.

[TylerDurden]

Isn't there an external BD drive that one can use with the Macbook? I know some users on this site have done this as an option.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by TylerDurden

Isn't there an external BD drive that one can use with the Macbook? I know some users on this site have done this as an option.

Yes there are for some models but those are third-party add ons and not directly supported by Apple. The external drives are less expensive but an internal slimline drive, from FastMac, will run about $1,000.

http://store.fastmac.com/advanced_se...id=&pfrom=&pto=

[jamesg11]

So what are some decent external drives choices for a Macbook? Where should I look?

[Semp1]

Apple wants their computers to be optical free. Everything is going to be digital through them. It means more profit for them since they get a percentage of everything sold through their digital iTunes/app stores. Why would they want to make other options easily available. They are a part of the Blu ray org but it's 2012 and their business mentality has changed since 2005. You will never see a Mac with a Bluray drive. Guaranteed. Optical drives are unnecessary add weight and extra thickness to a laptop. A external super drive is fine and at $79 who really cares.

[ObiTrentKenobi]

Thus is the point: why is Apple Inc. a "part" of the Bluray Association, if they don't actually SUPPORT OR BELIEVE IN THE PRODUCT THE ASSOCIATION IS ABOUT????

What a freak show. They tell you they love bluray, but what have they done to support it? What have they done to promote or push its technological advances? NOTHING!

All they wanted, was to slap their logo on a product, even though they had nothing to do with its creation or development, just so fanboys go "Hey look! Apple supports it! Doh ho ho, Apple is so amazing for putting their logo on a product they have nothing to do with and don't even care about".

PR Sham. Apple should be kicked out of this Bluray Association, since Apple is actually against the medium. They do want everything cloud based, which is inferior btw... so they receive more profit.

Apple is not about design or form or simplicity, it is a business out to get your money. The modern Apple designer (which was not Steve Jobs btw), had a good thing, the computers looked nice and pretty. But every year, they've stripped hardware more and more, and limited users more and more, to force cloud based computing and Apple propriety.

Suck it Apple. | I still love bluray.

[remake]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

And if the rumors are correct, the next MacBook Pros aren't going to have any internal CD/DVD drive. I hope that's not the case, but it seems to be where they're going and if you read the various Mac Rumor forums, that seems to be what most of those types of users want.

Yikes!

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by ObiTrentKenobi

Thus is the point: why is Apple Inc. a "part" of the Bluray Association, if they don't actually SUPPORT OR BELIEVE IN THE PRODUCT THE ASSOCIATION IS ABOUT????

What a freak show. They tell you they love bluray, but what have they done to support it? What have they done to promote or push its technological advances? NOTHING!

All they wanted, was to slap their logo on a product, even though they had nothing to do with its creation or development, just so fanboys go "Hey look! Apple supports it! Doh ho ho, Apple is so amazing for putting their logo on a product they have nothing to do with and don't even care about".

PR Sham. Apple should be kicked out of this Bluray Association, since Apple is actually against the medium. They do want everything cloud based, which is inferior btw... so they receive more profit.

Apple is not about design or form or simplicity, it is a business out to get your money. The modern Apple designer (which was not Steve Jobs btw), had a good thing, the computers looked nice and pretty. But every year, they've stripped hardware more and more, and limited users more and more, to force cloud based computing and Apple propriety.

Suck it Apple. | I still love bluray.

I think when Blu-ray was proposed, Apple probably thought it was a good idea. But the licensing issues combined with Apple's belief in e-commerce and cloud computing as well as Steve Jobs' Zen approach to design put the kibosh on BD for the Mac. It doesn't piss me off that Apple doesn't include a BD drive in the Mac. What does piss me off is that the OS doesn't support it. I think the OS should support any device you want to plug into it.

I'm hoping under its new CEO, Apple becomes a bit less close-minded about this kind of stuff and changes their mind about BD, but I'm not optimistic. As I noted above, if you go to MacRumours.com or AppleInsider.com and read the posts about this issue, MOST people surprisingly are in favor of Apple removing optical drives from all their laptop computers. That audience thinks they're obsolete. I've tried to argue the opposite (if Apple removes the optical drive from the MacBook Pro, then what's the difference between the Pro and the Air?), but I always get trashed.

At this point, I'm never going to watch a BD on my Mac anyway. But it would be nice to be able to write video to a BD on the Mac. The fact is that as Apple and others move to SSD storage, capacities are getting smaller as compared with hard drives and even people with 1TB hard disk drives are running out of space. And with the camera market emphasizing HD video more and more, people need a way to offload video. Other computer manufacturers should really push BD as an advantage over Apple. (And I say that as someone who loves my Apple computers.)

[KrugerIndustrial]

Originally Posted by Canada

They won't put a drive in because they want you to download movies off of the itunes plain and simple.

Exactly. iTunes offers HD films and Apple thinks that's equal to Blu-ray and hence sees no need to give customers the choice. One of the reasons why I dislike Apple's arrogant policies even though I own Apple products(iMac and iPod).

[Narcissus]

Apple's are under powered Pieces of crap.
Mac came with i7 @ 2.8 , 4Gb Ram, 1 tb hdd, 512 Mb VC for 1699 - No Blu, No Hdmi - No Expansion Bays

my pc: i7 @ 3.4 GHZ , 8 Gb Ram 1.5Tb HDD, 1Gb Vc, THX Certified With HDMI out, Blu Ray Drive and 3 expansion bays - 999.99.
Bite Me Apple FanBois - oh And Android Eats iOS for lunch

[KrugerIndustrial]

^Yes, but Macs are more about the OS X and design. Some people prefer to pay the extra cash just for that. Lion is a much better OS than Windows 7. But it's not perfect either. I own an iMac but I also have a new Thinkpad laptop that cost me $1700 and I still prefer my iMac. Everything just works more fluently.