“Apple has never been one for alliances, coalitions or other formal (or informal) industry-wide groupings. Case in point: The company joined the Blu-ray Disc Association in 2005 promising to help promote the high definition format and then did pretty much nothing (at least in a commercial sense) for close to three years,” Bryan Gardiner blogs or Wired.
“This despite Jobs acknowledging that ‘consumers are…anxiously awaiting a way to burn their own high def DVDs.’ Apparently, they weren’t anxious enough to warrant sticking Blu-ray drives in Macs,” Gardiner writes.
“Given the ongoing format war, Apple’s hesitation is more than understandable. But with Toshiba finally waving the white HD flag on Tuesday — and other BDA members like HP and Dell starting to offer more Blu-ray equipped systems — that reluctance could finally be changing,” Gardiner writes.
“Some Apple watchers seem to think we’ll start to see Blu-ray drives in Mac Pros by late spring…which is what some were also saying in back in 2006. I would only say that at this point Apple is in no hurry,” Gardiner writes. “In fact, with downloadable HD content via iTunes, it’s in even less of hurry. Apple would much rather sell (or rent) you a HD movie than help you watch it with a Blu-ray drive.”
More in the full article here.
optical discs and drives will soon be old technology, if they are not already. doesn’t mean they won’t exists, they just won’t be as important as a format. kinda like vinyl and turntables, they are still around but just not that important to the average consumer.
True that with iTunes Movie rentals they’re in no hurry to ship Blu-ray Macs
“Apple would much rather sell (or rent) you a HD movie than help you watch it with a Blu-ray drive.””
———————-
I think that those longing for Blu-Ray equipped Macs are less concerned with watching Blu-Ray movies than they are with being able to author and write to Blu-Ray discs…. Namely video and graphic pros…
First to post !!!!!!!!!!!
I’d, “What’s the rush. It’ll happen !
Ahhh, foiled by a slow connection.
I think the Mac consumer market is bigger than the video editing pros market.
Granted, few consumers watch movies on their desktop, but laptop owners in numbers probably would embrace the ability to watch blu-rays these days.
Apple should just offer BD as an option for all Macs until it is cheap enough to make it a standard feature.
They are waiting for one that will fit in the “Air”
Blu-Ray in the Mac Pro’s will be here very soon now that the format war is over.
It has nothing to with iTunes downloads or anything else, as the Mac Pro client base needs to be able to Author Blu-Ray discs for professional purposes.
Apple recognizes this and also recognizes that the Mac Pro attracts a very different client and set of needs relative to all of their other platforms.
maybe some people want to burn a backup copy of their digital life to a few Bluray discs instead of 100 DVDs
Movies blah –
Seriously, are you all that ignorant? Blu-ray players are horrendously fat. Apple would have to re-design the chassis in order for it to fit in an iMac, and I can guarantee you Apple will not release a product that’s fatter than a previous model.
A BR writable drive is 500 bucks
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Panasonic/SW5582BK/
so it is doable for Apple to offer a BTO option.
They still have to make the DVD player and burning tools workable with BR.
@ DogGone
Roxio Toast 8 Titanium supports Blu-Ray burning up to 50 GB.
Once upon a time, Apple was an early adopter themselves. In my 1999 G4 Sawtooth 450MHz PPC, I have a DVD-RAM drive. That’s a genius item. It also has a by-then well-established ZIP drive. Yes! ZIP FTW!!
Yeah, I think BR will be an option. It’s all about backup, really. Some of us gots big ol’ files to back up.
It’s obvious the Mac Pro will get a build-to-order option for Blu-ray soon. When a thin enough version becomes available, it will become an expensive option for the MacBook Pro.
But even when the thin version of the drive becomes available, Apple will delay putting it in consumer models as long as possible. If Blu-ray ever becomes the default standard for media and software distribution like DVD is now, that’s when Apple will put it in consumer Macs. Until that time (if it ever happens), Apple wants to build a sustainable base of customers who use Apple (iTunes Store) as their source for HD content.
Cheekgit,
I’m just wondering if you’ve use Toast 8x, because if you’d spent any time with it you’d realise that you just can’t recommend this version. It’s buggy and the video is crap compared to version 7.
The new version of Spin Doctor (which I haven’t used) apparently add pops to previously clean music files
I tried Toast 8 and after two weeks I went back to my copy of version 7. I’ve since updated to 7.13 which is Leopard compatible. I’ve only been using this version for a couple of weeks but it just seems to do what the other versions of Toast 7 do.
Oh and for the record, I’ve been using Toast since version 5x. Likewise I’ve burned hundreds of dvds and cds using Toast and the latest version sucks.
Don’t update to Toast 8 (yet) you’ll just be wasting your money.
Dear Cheekygit,
I left the “y” out of your name. My apologies for this oversight.
BR not only for movies.
I’m only waiting for an easy way to backup on smaller devices than 3.5″ harddrives piling… So, i’m glad to know BR is the actual choice for doing that.
@ Walter
I never said I “recommended” Toast 8. I just said that it’s available. DUH!
Try reading the comments and digest what is trying to be said instead of typing gibberish.
“Apple has never been one for alliances, coalitions or other formal (or informal) industry-wide groupings.”
What a crock, Apple have been in bed with loads of different industry-wide groups. Pioneered USB (when PCs were still using floppy discs), bluetooth, wireless networking, quicktime, pdf standard – the list goes on. Don’t forget the deal they made with M$.
FTA “Beyond eschewing industry alliances, Apple’s also never been a company to indulge in feature glut — jamming the latest and greatest technologies into new computer just to say it has them. If anything, the company tends to omit features for the sake of simplicity and uniformity.”
Apart from video hardware, Macs usually have the top end (ish) of hardware that’s available. Nb PCI, Firewire 400/800, flat screens, processors, bus rates – more available to anyone willing to do the research.
Wired are spouting uninformed FUD as usual.
@delta
I think the things you mentioned are less about alliances and more about being the first adopters of new technologies.
That being said, your rant could have included the biggest alliance of all, the PPC Alliance, with Moto and IBM.
Seriously,
Optical Discs SUCK!
It’s a flawed concept and a flawed design. One good scratch and that $25 Blu-Ray movie’s kaput?
I abslutely hate DVDs and CDs that skip, lock up and/or freeze completely while you’re watching or listening. A disc with one scratch in just the right place might not even be recognized at all.
WHY are we sticking to this paradigm? Maybe it’s still to expensive, but imagine content on NAND flash being sold commercially. If we’re going to be selling physical media, why not have it be something reliable?!
Apple has the right approach – all digital content with no optical discs involved!
Wow, sorry about all those typos (for those of you that might care).
@Cheekygit,
Wow. Earning your nickname today, huh?