Steve Jobs Suggests Blu-ray Not Coming to Mac Anytime Soon
Amongst the emails that Steve Jobs has been responding to, he also responded to an inquiry by a MacRumors reader Siva about future of Blu-ray on the Mac. While Blu-ray has been a long requested feature for Macs, Apple has described Blu-ray licensing as bag of hurt and hasn't made any moves to incorporate the drives into their desktop Macs.
That seems unlikely to change in the near future if Steve Jobs' recent email replies are any guide. Siva emailed Jobs about being disappointed that the recently revised Mac mini didn't include a Blu-ray drive. To this, Steve Jobs replied:
Bluray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD - like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats.
Siva responded that even though this may be true in the long run, he argued the medium term benefits were substantial, including high density backups and high quality video. He also argued that high-end video formats have had a much higher uptake and points out the lack of DRM was in part what made MP3 take off. Jobs' final response, however, offered little hope:No, free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off. And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue.
I think you may be wrong - we may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over.
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Streaming movies will continue to grow, pretty clear now that Bluray is in the past
No, it's pretty clear now that Blu-ray isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It's been growing ever since it came out, and it's going to seriously pick up speed real soon. Blu-ray Awareness Month is just around the corner- And by that I mean the Tattooine double sunset is going to be breathtaking in high-bitrate 1080p...
[Darth Vader voice] (heavy breathing) "Don't be too proud of this technological wonder that Netflix has created. The ability to stream an over-compressed B movie is INSIGNIFICANT compared to the power of the force!! [/Darth Vader voice]
It just doesn't make sense why games need to be on disc anymore. I don't need discs for my Mac anymore, so I shouldn't need them for games on my PS3.
It actually makes perfect sense once you realise that you are not everyone. This is why there are still games being sold on discs.
Interestingly more students prefer non-BD supported Macs over BD supported Windows PCs and a free XBox 360.
Back to school sales has Apple beating Microsoft 8 to 2
http://www.macgasm.net/2011/07/05/back-to-school-sales-has-apple-beating-microsoft-8-to-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macgasm%2Fmain+%28Macgasm%29
It looks like the computer "that just works" trumps BD support.
Well of course. Everyone here would prefer having OS X with no Blu-ray over a Windows PC with Blu-ray. But the argument here is that those of us with Macs would prefer a Mac with Blu-ray over a Mac without Blu-ray. Not everyone has the 90" screen setup that you have. Some of us live in a 1 bedroom apartment where the Mac (especially with its gorgeous 27" display) is our main entertainment center.
Lets all have a moment of silence over the passing of our beloved thread ;)
What some people have seemed to miss in this discussion is that many people who want blu-ray playback are perfectly fine with Macs not having blu-ray players. Many are perfectly fine with having to buy an external player.
The, dare I say, bigger issue is that Mac's don't support the format regardless.
Jobs and Apple can kill off their optical drives all they want. That doesn't mean they can't/shouldn't at least provide playback capabilities for those that choose to want a blu-ray player. It makes little sense EXCEPT that they want the user to exclusively use iTunes and their stores.
Apple supports thousands of printers and other devices connected via USB, etc. That's because their's seemingly no "conflict of interest"
I would bet that if Apple bought all the Kinkos of the world - they'd start phasing out printer support. And the sound bites would be similar to "Print is dead - no one needs hard copies these days. But if you DO need to have a hard copy - Apple can do that for you. Just send the file to one of our iCopy stores and you can pick up your hard copies 24/7..."
My favorite post which sums up the entire thread in over 100 words and illustrates how some people STILL fail to understand the real issue.
I swear this thread needs to die...do we really need to argue? Blu-Ray isn't happening, Apple is already beginning the death of the optical drive.
I think you meant to say that Apple is already beginning the death of the optical drive on its line of products.
The reality is that BD will not die. It will be around for years to come, and thus the rippers will always be able to get their rips from someone else. This will allow them to continue to argue that the physical disc is lame and should die, even though it's as meaningful as saying Mila Kunis should sleep with them.
Ah, but isn't it fun to argue? :)
You sure have a LOT of spare time on your hands
Congratulations, that is a personal attack. And you still haven't answered a single question.
provoking and causing resentment with strangers, whilst assembling long, drawn-out and pedantic multi-quoting replies, to FORCE your "point" across.
Translation: you still got nothing. You think your misinformed facts are true and can't deal with someone calling you on it.
And you know, multiquoting is a point of etiquette, so I'm not losing track of what you said in response and it helps other people follow the thread(s) of conversation.
No, I just feel very passionately about the Mac and about high quality home theater (and that would be why I know the things you are saying are not true). Two of my favorite things and it's a shame they can't be brought together. I've been participating in this thread for a long time. Whereas you dropped in from a helicopter out of nowhere and dropped a lot of misinformation and are attempting to just let it stand and exit. You don't know what you're talking about.
With the logic most of the anti-Blu-ray crowd have here, Apple is wasting their time including an Ethernet port on the iMac even though wireless is already becoming the standard. But it doesn't hurt to have the port on there. Just like it wouldn't hurt if a Blu-ray drive was in the iMac. I personally have no need for the Ethernet port or FireWire, but I wouldn't make 20 posts on a forum about why the iMac shouldn't include it.
I don't imagine Apple releasing a technology merely as a "stop-gap", just to appease all the Blu Ray wanters. Not gonna happen, not ever. PERIOD.
I don't think anyone can consider 3 to 5 years as a stop-gap. In fact, most people buy a new computer every 4 years.
I don't imagine Apple releasing a technology merely as a "stop-gap", just to appease all the Blu Ray wanters. Not gonna happen, not ever. PERIOD.
In other words, you have no answer.
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