Why is apple moving away from the optical drive with the new Macbook Pro?

Retina model does not have optical drive.

Non-Retina models still have it.

Macminis do not have optical drive. Lion (and probably all newwe OSX) will come through App Store or thumb drive.

DVD, even dual-layer, have limits. Thumb drives and downloads do not. OSX release of SL uses up almost all of the DVD DL for both disk 1 and disk 2.

The true fact is that while there are quite a few people who still use physical media, that delivery method is being taken over by online downloads. Back in the day of slow modems and small hard drives (the Dark Ages), physical media was necessary, since it was a cheap method of data transfer.

Apple sees it as a dying media (look at the overwhelming reception of digital streaming/downloading for videos/music for example). As you are happy with your MBP that includes an optical drive, then you won't have to worry about this problem yet, but Apple has historically gotten rid of components it doesn't see as having a futrue. This being one of them.

It also lightened the weight, allows for a smaller case, and has one less place for more dust to get into the computer.

If you ever want to upgrade to a computer that doesn't have an optical drive, I'd suggest ripping ISOs of the software, and movies onto an external hard drive. Makes life easier and you can access your library from one location with less worry about being lost or scratched or smudged.

I haven't used a DVD drive in probably a year (and I even work in media) - most people won't miss it, some will begrudgingly adapt, and even fewer still will resist the change. Same happened with the floppy drive.

Let me take your specific questions in order:

Why abandond the drive in the newest model?

There are a couple of reasons - I should note that I do not agree with them, just stating them. They want to pull more WinDoze 'ultrabook' shoppers over to the Mac line. That's a good thing. The impression is that lighter is better for that market so, they had to lose some weight. Also, Apple obviously believes that 'culturally', we will at some point fail to utilize physical mediums. I can tell you that is never going to happen. Not this year, not in ten years, not in 100 years. Now, before some smartass calls me on my inability to time travel, thus, my answer must be wrong, let me point out the obvious, which is that everything physical has a limit. DVDs do not last forever, but once encoded, they are a solid medium and billions exist. Thumb drives sound great in theory but in practice, despite being able to hold more data, they are no more solid than DVDs and it will be a long, long time before DVDs go away in the marketplace. People want to have physical mediums. Look at the iPad - great for reading books, but every survey shows people prefer actual books. Personally, I do not want to have to have 500 TB of space for all my media, nor do I want a company to have the ability to 'pull the plug' on my media - if it's not physically in my hands, they can do that. Same kind of reason there is opposition to the US healthcare bill; do you feel safer with your information in a folder in an office where the only real fear is fire or safer with your sensitve healthcare information on a drive somewhere where a hacker can wreak havoc? We are simply more comfortable with touch-and-feel.

Why does it make the product better?

It doesn't. IMHO. Now, the Retina screen is something better (I questioned this when I compared it to the anti-glare version of the prior incarnation, see prior post) but the SSD, while tiny, is technically safer and more solid for data (no moving parts, etc). But the lack of a DVD drive (I felt they should have gone the other way and provided at least an option for an internal BluRay Superdrive) does not, by itself, make it better. It makes it lighter, not better. For people who have one computer in their home for business and home use, an external drive will now be a must; the kids will want to watch their movies on roadtrips, etc. In my case, clients want DVDs, so an external is now a must for me, unfortunately.

Does this make the product more efficient?

I can't imagine it does in any way, but I'm not an engineer and, more importantly, I do not have one (yet). However, barring OS issues, loading a DVD vs. loading a movie in iTunes - loading the iTunes movie is faster, but it's obviously not better, since BluRay is much better image quality. Does the speed of the load make it more 'efficient'? That will be argued. I would say it is negligible. It may help airflow not having it in there, it obviously makes it lighter. But that does not automatically equate into more 'efficient'.

You also asked about eco-friendly and frankly, I think these machines are as eco as you can get and can't really be moreseo. MHO. I cannot imagine not having an optical drive makes it (net) any more eco friendly.

Many people seldom or never use the optical drives in the computers they own now, and wouldn't miss them if they were gone. Many people never watch movies on their computers at all, either downloaded or on discs. For those who do, especially while traveling, optical discs' movie-industry-regulated region coding is a major headache. Optical drives, being fairly complex mechanical devices with lots of small moving parts and open to the outside world through the disc slot, are notoriously susceptible to dirt and failure, as anyone who reads this forum regularly knows. And that isn't confined to Apple computers at all: optical drives in all notebooks are often the weakest links in the hardware. An optical drive takes up a sizable fraction of the space inside a MBP's case, and without the drive, more space is available for a larger battery to support ever more power-hungry processors, more and better-distributed cooling airflow to prevent them from cooking themselves, and more convenient port distribution and spacing.

Two simple facts.

1) The size of the Retina display model does not allow the inclusion of an Optical drive in the case. It is to thin.

2) You can still buy an Apple external CD/DVD drive so you have access to doing whatever you want with that drive. you can also buy any USB external CD/DVD drive and it should work with the newer Retina display model for the most part but you may need aftermarket software for certain features and or operations.

Nothing is stopping you from buying and useing the Apple external DVD drvie or any other external make/model DVD drive.

I seldom use mine. If I need one, I can always hook up an external super drive. I'd prefer to haul a superdrive on the rare occassion tat I need it than all of the time in a larger, heavier case, when I don't need it. Go Apple! You are heading in the right direction, as far as I am concerned.

The lack of an optic drive in the new mac book "PRO" is yet another item of proof that Apple is abandoning the professional customer. I'm an film editor and DIT. Clients ask for data on disks all the time. Thanks to Apple I will have to carry around another piece of equipment. I've already moved from FCP back to AVID due to FCPX.

Garbage.

kayjh wrote:

I seldom use mine. If I need one, I can always hook up an external super drive. I'd prefer to haul a superdrive on the rare occassion tat I need it than all of the time in a larger, heavier case, when I don't need it. Go Apple! You are heading in the right direction, as far as I am concerned.

In my opinion Apple should remove the superdrive from the standard MBP and allow the install of a second hard drive there along with making it possible to install Windows in a BC partition from an external DVD drive. Which they don't do now. Not sure about the new standard MBP but with the 2011's you can only install Windows from an internal DVD drive.

Same boat, TimRG. Most of the people posting around the web and this forum on this topic are not among the hundreds of thousands of people who have been using Macs in a 'Pro' way for a long time, so their comments are, I guess, to be expected, since so many post without considering a user outside of their own mode.

To play on Shootist007's words - 'The simple fact is' that we still receive a ton of material ON disc, let alone what we PRODUCE. Source material/footage typically sent on DVD. The combination of a dinky hard drive (256 is WAY too small for Pro users no matter HOW many external drives we have) and no DVD drive really does tell the Pro market that Apple is done with us. We've come full circle - from being patronized to embraced to patronized again.

If all you want a laptop for is email, web searching and writing a report, the Air is great for you. The Pro line should be that - faster is great but not if it cuts the Pros needing the box off at the hackles. Dropping FCP down to FCPX was step one, I guess this is step two. The problem, is that Windows machines suck, so Pros are stuck.

Make that double-stuck since the flippin' SSD is soldered in.

Like I said in another post, the add-on DVD/BR burner market is going to explode now. Just can't live without it.

Really if Windows sucked as much as most Mac users say they would be out of business by now. They aren't, Windows doesn't suck and the hardware they both use is exactly the same. Go figure.

I have a new Dell notebook along with my new Mac. I removed the DVD drive from the Dell, in a media bay, and installed a 750 7200RPM drive in that bay. Put a 120GB SSD in the main bay. That took all of about 10 minutes and did not void any warranty. I can boot off the external DVD. I can watch movies off the external DVD (without any add-on software like you must use if you remove the superdrive from a mac), I can burn anything I like on that external. And I don't have to give up that area for something I normally, daily, don't use.

IMHO buying a Mac today is a compromise.

During my time on this planet I have used the Apple II+ and every iteration of Mac since, I have used the Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga and every version of Windows since 1996. I work for 10 hours a day on a Windows machine, nothing but problems, hardware and software. I come home and boot up my 8-year-old MacPro G5 tower and it beats the pants off anything at the office, even with the spinning rainbow. I wouldn't trade my old MacPro for a new Windows-anything. If you would, good for you. But coming home to my old MacPro is like a ray of flippin' sunshine after being in a cellar all day.

In my view, Windows *****. Marketing and forced faulty updates do not make something great.

All that said, I cannot disagree with the statement that it is a compromise, but for different reasons. If you have the wherewithall to release new machines with totally different body styles, specs and tech, you have the wherewithall to have as one of those techs an internal BluRay burner option. Apple just chose not to. Some of us are of the opinion that is a negative and a sign that professional artists who helped cement the line as legitmate machines in a world that once thought it was only good for playing Loderunner are being left out of the mix. As always, time will tell. But it's not just Pros. Consumers, especially in this economy, need to be able to use one computer for various purposes. The people who say movies are not watched on laptops obviously do not travel, have children, or both. The Cloud is not, and never will be, for everyone.

Shootist007 wrote:

IMHO buying a Mac today is a compromise.

I agree -- compromise.

All things computer these days is compromise.

I wanted a non-Windows laptop to run higher-powered Oracle database software. But I had already worked with Oracle 11g and had issues with having to create the "virtual end of network adapter" for Oracle to function.

I had created a Linux desktop install where I could load java compilers of choice, but they did not have the correct packages needed for Oracle full-strength. Enterprise-level Linux packges can, but are fixed at a specific set of software distros including java.

Now I have a SL laptop with a VERY convenient screen zoom that is Oracle-compatible. But Apple sends me new java versions as it sees fit.

Pick your poison, children.

I have been working and playing with computer for over 22 years most of them Windows and some Mac. I have never had any problems with either. I have a 10+ year old Dell i8200 notebook that boots faster, load programs faster, does all work faster then any other computer at my place of employment. Why because I run a clean system. All the workplace computer are loaded down with JUNK software.

If you have so many problems with Windows at work it is not Windows fault. It is the fault of whoever sets them up.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I've been with my current company for 12 years, multiple hardware and software incarnations and multiple I-T personnel and Windows has always been lousy. Not only that, but that's the consensus among plenty of others with no skin in the Apple game. Glad it works for you.

I would guess apple didn't have choice with retina display.

More resolutuin means more power usage. Battery technology is one of the hardest and slowest technology and the easiest and cheapest way to feed more power is incresing the battery size.

With bigger battery size, the new MBP should be bigger. But this was not apple wanted. It would sound bad if they showed a bigger model of MBP or shorter battery duration model at WWDC. They must gave up something to fit the bigger battery to keep up 7 hours battery duration and also make it smaller. There are many more things they gave up on new MBP, (keshington lock, firewire etc...) Also I think this is why they kept non-retina version as well so you can choose from higher resolution one or more stuff version.