WHY APPLE DISCONTINUE MACBOOK :( ?

The MB Air is a far better product and took it's place.. It also sold an amazing amount more than the original MacBook, so they probably decided from a business standpoint to focus on the product lines that are making the most $ and sales.

You can still get the white MacBook through education sources however, so it's not entirely gone.

I personally am very happy that the Air has taken it's place, since it's far lighter and faster and has a much nicer screen. The lack of a DVD drive isn't that bad because you can always get an external drive if you really need one.

Hahaha. I have the Aluminum Unibody MacBook, which was discontinued in 6 months. Whenever I take my computer to a store for repair/buy accessories, I have to first prove that it is a MacBook, not a MacBook Pro.🙂

But seriously though, the white book looked pretty sweet and was targeted towards students. It was a full fledged entry level Mac. The Air lacks an optical drive, and hence is pretty useless for students, as most textbooks come with a CD. And they have a tiny SSD.

I think most students will prefer the 13" Pro over the Air.

agreed. The unibody Mac makes a great machine for students who have to deal with optical media no matter what the tastemakers in the industry decide. The air is more for latte sipping at the cafe. It's a shame Apple is phasing out the only fully-featured laptop that most students can even come close to affording. No wonder despite the contract Apple has on many campuses, you see plenty of other brands and operating systems mixed in there.

I agree!! Bring the white mac back!!!!!!! or make a new one.!!!!!! The MBA is useless for students. Especially for students who have classes that require a CD........ I brought my macbook for Christmas last year and when i was in decision of purchasing a Mac my decision was between the white Macbook and the MBA. I picked the white macbook due to the CD drive and now its discontinued. man oh man.........

I'm a long time entry level mac user. I use the macbook for just kicking around the house: photo-editing, streaming music, internet, word processing, transferring my cd's to digital, etc. I've enjoyed the durability of the plasitc laptops. I just shove them in a backpack when we travel and they take the abuse without whining. They're definately not on the 'sexy' side of apple but they're cheap and they work. That's usually good enough for me. When I replace the current one, I'll definately need an optical drive but probably will refuse to buy a separate one. Who knows, maybe this is the end of mac for me.

I think we all need to consider one important fact about where all the products are trending (at least the notebooks from Apple). Within the next few generations they won't ship with DVD drives. The space it takes up, the weight, and the power just don't make sense with relation to Apple striving to make them thinner, lighter, and longer lasting (battery).

It's very possible to see products come back with a plastic case again, however I highly doubt they'll come back from their decision to do away with the DVD drive.

The external drives really aren't bad (both apple's and other brands). I've been using a cheap $30 one for a while an its been stowed away for a long time now.

The weight savings has been fantastic -- why carry something around that you only use on occasion.

Apple did away with the floppy disk in the same fashion. Companies released external drives for people who used them, however most people never bothered to buy them.

Between sharing a DVD drive from another system, ripping your CDs/DVDs ahead of time, and getting media online, it's going to be hard to convince most people that Apple has done the wrong thing.

As you may have noticed, very few of any systems ship with floppy drives from any manufacture. I think once Apple does this to their notebooks across the line, other manufacturers will do the same.

Net books already did this as do tablets.

So, my suggestion is instead of moving on from Apple forever due to something that will eventually happen across the industry, consider an external DVD drive or use your current product to rip the CDs you currently have.

A nice setting in iTunes that helped me a lot was the preference to import and eject the cd upon inserting -- very useful when ripping many CDs.

Honestly, the MacBook Air is not a better computer than the white unibody MacBook. For the same price as the white unibody, you get a tiny little computer with about half the hard drive space. I considered the 13in air when I was buying my first mac, but I like the white MacBook a lot better. (Mind you, I bought mine a month ago, brand new with Lion from my university computer store.) Among my university, I have yet to see a MacBook Air in use. Everyone has a MacBook Pro or the white unibody. It's not that bad of a computer. I don't have a single problem with mine. I love my mac 😍

Historically, Apple have continually revamped their product lines. You can't get the iBook any more! Clearly, their market research indicates that it's time to phase out the plain old MacBook.

Bob

From a business standpoint it makes a lot of sense, but still... 😟

Maybe they'll bring out a new Macbook in the future 😀