Apple's MacBook Strategy: Optical is Over

PCWorld Magazine ^ | 7/10/2009 | Seth Weintraub

[Swordmaker]

Last month, most of Apple's MacBooks were upgraded with SD card slots. The most popular 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros both now have card readers. Apple even explains how to build a bootable SD card. Why on earth would Apple go through the trouble of explaining how to create a boot disk from an SD card? That seems way out in left field. They never did that for USB key drives.

I think there is more to it than that. Apple doesn't just do things like SD cards. "You can just throw in a USB SD card reader" had been the mantra up until this point. Apple didn't need to bother itself with these little things.

Now, I think things have changed. The SD card has become part of Apple's MacBook strategy. It should be arriving on the MacBook Air and the regular MacBook at the next updates...and it might even take the place of the DVD drive on the next MacBook.

That's right, I think the SD card is going to replace the DVD drive on most of Apple's laptops going forward. If you really need a DVD, you'll be able to buy an external USB Superdrive - but that option will mostly be a safety net.

Remember when Apple killed the floppy with the iMac? This will be the same thing. You could buy external floppy but how many of you really did?

Think about it. What would you rather have on your laptop? An easily rewritable 32GB SD card the size of a postage stamp that can hold about the same amount of data as 8 DVDs or a big spinning disk that can scratch easily and takes up about 1/4th of the internal usable area in your laptop?

It is a no-brainer; optical is over.

[Malsua]

Optical drives are headed for extinction. Apple is simply seeing the writing on the wall. Good for them.

Does anyone recall the switch to DVDs? DVD rentals were one small shelf with 20 movies in the late 90s. By 2003 it had completely switched.

The same will happen here. In 5 years all new media will be either downloadable content or come on a flash disk of some type. There will be options to get it on DVD/Blu-ray, etc. but it won’t be the norm.

[TXnMA]

"SD cards can die also."

And, they are not difficult to lose. (The voice of experience...)

Of course, a small case the size of a DVD "jewel box" could hold a hold lot of them...

If Apple does drop the DVD reader/burner, I suppose they could offer a USB external along with the MBs -- plus some nifty sort of SD card "caddy"...

~~~~~~~~~~~

Without realizing it, we have arrived at the time where Star Trek's pocketable, transportable "Data Crystal" is not only a reality -- but is becoming commonplace...

[WVKayaker]

[TXnMA]

Why do people start their posts with "ummmm...."[?}

Ummmmm...training to become ummmmm Pres Uhhh dent?

[TXnMA]

OTOH, I've been known to load a whole tote bag with DVDs for entertainment purposes when the family goes on an extended trip.

I could do without that hassle...

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Interesting, thanks for the ping!

[SunkenCiv]

Apple doesn't just do things like SD cards. "You can just throw in a USB SD card reader" had been the mantra up until this point. Apple didn't need to bother itself with these little things.

What (if anything) is built into the iPod and iPhone families of products? Might this be a new feature to expect?

[SunkenCiv]

Remember when Apple killed the floppy with the iMac? This will be the same thing. You could buy external floppy but how many of you really did?

I've got a few of those, and bought 'em cheap. They're useful on USB-capable Windulls machines as well, either laptops (which don't have floppies, regardless of OS) or on desktop machines which have internal floppies that are plain worn out. :')

[SunkenCiv]

Ooh, look, some miserable lying a-hole spammed the keywords:

KEYWORDS: cult; itsacultfolks; spammer; zombies

[Pikachu_Dad]

Give it time mate. I was shocked when I bought my first computer without a floppy disc.

I thought it had one, but it turned out to be a propriety Sony storage medium.

I was very upset until I realized that the little tiny slot for a memory stick WAS my new floppy disc. And that little tiny memory stick could hold the equivalent of 50 floppies.

I still have a bunch of floppy discs with stuff on them... But I haven’t used them in 15 years.

[T Minus Four]

Macs never had a 5 1/4...

I meant that software you purchased had both-sized media in the box so you could use the one yuo needed and pitch the other.

[tubebender]

My grandson says his new Macbook has a SD card slot. He bought it last month at the college bookstore...

[T Minus Four]

OK, maybe you can help me. What’s the easiest way to get my legal, licensed copy of Office into the Acer? It’s loaded on my “full-size” laptop and of course I have the disks.

Can I copy it onto a flash drive? Link the two computers to send? Download it from the MS site with my license number?

[WVKayaker]

There is a Windoze drone that is prone to use derogatory remarks towards Mac users on FreeRepublic, and has been profusive the past weeks. Oh wait, there's more than one.

Children will be children. I assume the Mods can modify it all!

[big'ol_freeper]

Who is Bill Gates?

One of the biggest philanthropic supporters of the Culture of Death in the world.

[chris_bdba]

I doubt it. adding a portable DVD drive to transfer your info from one to the other should be quick and easy and wouldn’t stop me from buying one.

[chris_bdba]

LOL We still have one of those aroud here. It finally died about 2 years ago.

[Richard Kimball]

I remember showing my wife the 5 1/4" floppy and telling her, "You can store like ten books on this thing" and being amazed.

Remembering that this is all speculation here, it makes a lot of sense. Apple is moving towards eliminating all the stuff that increases power consumption and bulk in the laptops. On my daughter's laptop, she uses a USB hub and a wireless mouse, so when she docks, two quick plug ins (power and USB) and everything's docked. You can pick up a high quality external USB burner for less than a hundred, and even people that burn DVDs are less likely to do it when they are away from their docking station.

Also, DVD burners, particularly consumer grade, tend to have a relatively short life span if they're used a lot. This fits into Apple's philosophy of addition by subtraction, removing legacy features that people don't use that much.

[dangus]

You can download it from MS, and then enter your license number. But the license only covers one computer, so if you already have it loaded and registered on one computer, you may have problems activating it on the second computer.

I still have MS Office, but OpenOffice works just as well, except for the database program. The interface is just like the pre-2003 Office.

[Blue Highway]

Very cool, are you Henry Birdseye?

Bill Gates forecasting that in the future there will be thousands of software stores like there were then record stores. Did he envision the internet at that time? You wonder. Did he foresee a place like NewEgg? Did he contemplate record stores were going to go to the wayside like Betamax VCRs?