Q: No DVD drive in new iMac ???

The 'Market' speaks via stock prices, and Apples are up (on a daily basis, up on a quarterly basis and way up if viewed yearly)

Speculation is a waste of time when reality already exists.

Apple's stock is only up because they are bonding $17 billion to give back to investors. Stock holders are seeing a chance to get a payback on their investment that Apple has never paid back before. The sad thing about this is Apple is borrowing the money because most of Apple's money is tied up overseas and they can't bring it back here because of huge tax penalties.

Apple's stock rise has nothing to do with current sales or any upcoming innovation.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2036920/to-give-back-to-investors-apple-goes-for -massive-bond-deal.html

I'm sure that you understand what a 'downward trend' is. Sure, stock is up . . . yesterday. It was down about $3.53 a few minutes ago. Going back to it's high at the end of August, 2012, we see Apple stock down $263 share. So, yes, the market IS speaking and it's not good. Note the DOWNWARD trend:

I don't take any notice of hourly or even daily changes. Since purchasing it my stock has trended up, occasional down hours have little effect. My stock dates from the late 80's and is now worth significantly more than I paid for it.

If you want to 'invest' by the day, Davids suggestion is better.

Daily decline? How about a seven month decline. Hold your stock long enough and it will be worth what it was in the 80s.

As I said before, I don't do short term market investments, they are for the foolish, or the lucky.

justamacguy wrote:

When you lose a whole state education system (which you have had a previous contract in since 2002) I would say… the market is speaking.

Read the article more carefully. Apple only lost the exclusive contract to supply Maine schools computers. Middle schools can still choose any of the submitted proposals.

BTW, what the overall market is saying is conventional computers are quickly losing ground to tablets & smart phones -- which don't have built-in optical drives & usually can't even be connected to them. The last quarter saw the steepest decline ever in conventional computer sales (over 17%). By comparison, Mac sales over the same period declined less than half that much.

Yep... we don't need no stinking desktop because we are moving to ipads. Whoa, wait... where do ipad apps come from? Ummm, how about desktop computers?

There is just as much halo effect around having a good desktop to support your "whatever pad" as there was for ipods and Macs in the beginning. Apple has no pro machines right now (that are any good) when compared to what is coming out with other companies. When Windows in taught in the schools, future adults use Windows. If Apples desktops don't keep up, even if the populaiton of desktops is dwindling, you will agiain see a Microsoft world again. Because as MS desktops (which you can buy extreme motherboards for) work with MS pads, it just makes sense to buy that combination. Being visible is advertising and Apple is losing visability in places where it counts. When was the last time you saw a feature motion picture produced on Apple hardware? How many universities are looking to Apple for super computing these days.

Yes... I still have my ipad and iphone for now, but that Windows side is getting pretty attractive with Adobe and fast hardware. Apple has jumped the shark before and apparently they don't remember their own history. Locking the system down too tight got them in trouble back in the 80's. It looks like there is a replay coming up. That will be determinded by what hardware and software releases they make between now and 2014. No pro machine with thunderbolt... FCPX has real potential, but isn't updating as fast as it should and definately not advertised to pros... Aperture is aging and being eaten up by Lightroom... Adobe is eating up anything pro while Apple is languishing.

Meh... maybe all we have to do is sit around and surf web page on a pad... who needs to work?

Actually, the decline in PC sales is said to be linked to Windows 8 not being desktop friendly. iMac no-go with no optical drive. Might as well get used to /bin/bash.

ilvi wrote:

Actually, the decline in PC sales is said to be linked to Windows 8 not being desktop friendly. iMac no-go with no optical drive.

Who says that? The trend toward smart phones & tablets replacing conventional computers (both desktop & laptop) started many quarters ago, well before iMacs without built-in DVD drives were introduced or Windows 8 was released.

And despite the spin & speculation about PC halo effects, etc., in the first quarter of this year -- when iMacs without DVD drives were available in quantity -- Apple's conventional computer sales declined at less than half the rate of PC sales. If there really was so much market resistance to the Macs without DVD drives, it would have been the other way around.

The facts of the market say this is much less of an issue than some people believe. Sure, there are some that will switch to "all-in-one" PC's with built-in optical drives because iMacs no longer have them, but there are more that don't use DVD's enough for that to matter, or just buy an external optical drive & find room for it.

After all, it isn't like the externals are huge devices that take over a desk. Many will fit nicely next to the foot of an iMac stand, taking up very little extra desk space. For those that gripe about accessibility, it is an even better place for one than a slot on the side of the case.

For the considerable number of people that worry about previous iMacs running hotter or noisier than they would like, the new ones will end that, in no small part because there is no optical burner in the case. For those of us that don't trust slot loading drives to begin with, or want or need higher performance burners than Apple has ever offered, this is a very minor issue (& for people like me, just the incentive I need to finally get one).

As for pros, as has already been mentioned many times very few rely on built-in slot loading burners because they are not rugged enough for continuous production work. Far worse, a jammed disc effectively brings production work to a halt & makes an entire AIO unavailable while its built-in drive is being serviced. Not many pros that want to retain a competitive edge should be willing to risk that.

Frankly, I think all these arguments about why no optical drives in iMacs are such a horrible idea are no more valid than the very similar ones we heard when Apple did not include floppy disk drives in the first iMacs (including the tired old one that only Apple "fanboys" defend these omissions).

And regardless of all that, I think the real reason some are so unhappy about it is the idea that Apple is in some way cheating its customers by not including everything in previous iMacs, at least not without some proportional reduction in retail price. But the truth is iMacs have never been about cheapness -- if that is what you want, there are plenty of cheap PC's to choose from.

I'm sure iMac sales are up for new users/buyers. And I bet they ask were the DVD player is. Oh, I need to buy one... How much??? Oh, that's cheap... add one to the package.

(Most people who have posted in this thread say they are Pros... aren't. Real Pros adapt and get the job done. True Pros have additional hardware hooked up to their computer. Pros buy a Windows computer if they need it and don't whine. I worked in a Pro setting setting all of my life. We had obsolete hardware stacked up in a room. When software upgrades came along we had to get it. We had to stay one step ahead of our customers. If a customer had hardware or software that we didn't have, we bought it. We bought Macs without DVD drives... (and other type of drives). We would buy a few and hooked them when needed. We made millions!!! blsh blah blah...)

How about a job, David? Previous Apple tech support employee here.. CO Springs.. <3

David M Brewer wrote:

I'm sure iMac sales are up for new users/buyers.

I have no idea if that is really true or not.

But what I am absolutely certain of is this longtime iMac user thinks this new iMac is far & away the best iMac I have ever owned or used in every way that is important to me, particularly in value received vs. price paid.

All I can suggest to those that think otherwise is to go check one out for yourself. Make your own decision about that. If you let others that haven't done that decide for you, you might just be ignoring one of the best computers on the market for your own needs.

I'll second RC-R!

Just transfered over files from my old MacPro to my new iMac 27" core i7. This computer is fast! After 9 years of looking at that big G5 and more recent Intel Xeon tower on the floor next to my computer desk, I now have a clean looking desk, both on top and below (I think I will miss the 4 HD bays, but we'll see how it goes).

By the way, for $71 more dollars I bought the USB SuperDrive, did a clean install of all my software and then put the drive away in a drawer. I've got a clean looking desk with just the mouse, keyboard and a small 1GB thunderbolt HD for Time Machine backups on it.

Adding $71-$79 dollars to a $1299 to $1999 (or more) priced computer should not break the bank on this kind of purchase. Like the floppy drive, the PC builders will follow Apple in a few years and drop the DVD/CD drives too.

I sure they are working hard at trying to copy the look and feel of the new iMacs.

Let me reverse this logic for you guys, since many of you believe having no optical drive doesn't hurt the sales of the new iMac: How many of you rushed to buy one because it did NOT have an optical drive?

As for 'pros' as referenced by David the Adapter Get-R-Doner from Denver: I've been in publishing for 28 years. The most change I've seen has been in the last 5 years and this change I'm responsible for. I watched previous managers bury their heads in the sand and refuse to accept that publishing was forever changed from printed media to on-demand digital and electronic media. I'm seeing an increased number of customers who, generally, are not happy with their book in electronic format and are returning to printed media in limited quantities. We're full force into digital printing and it's been the best decision we've made. So, I know all about adaption which brings me to the next point: Apple's 'assumption' that DVD drives were no longer needed. We are constantly pulling old files from 8 to 10 years ago and converting them to digital print on-demand and all these files are on CD's and DVD's. We have 3 iMacs, G5 Mac pro and 1 Mac Pro Intel in our design department (The oldest computer obviously is the G5 which we use basically as a back-up). All these machines have optical drives and we use them every day. No one wants to buy an all-in-one that's not an all-in-one. It makes no sense to clutter your desk with even more device(s) unnecessarily. When you couple the no op drive with Apple's other assinine decision to develop their own Windows sharing software in place of SMB, it adds another layer of complications since our digital machines are optimized for SMB and cannot use Apple's version. The manufacturer's position at this moment is that they have no plans to make future software updates that support Apple's windows file sharing. We've already been warned NOT to upgrade past 10.6.

So, logic dictates that we replace one machine, the iMac work station we use to send jobs to the Fiery RIP, be a Windows based machine. I hate it, I don't like it but Apple has forced us into this decision with their short sighted stupidity. Adapt, Get-r-done.