“After calling licensing for Sony Corp.’s Blu-ray technology a ‘bag of hurt,’ Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs said his company’s new laptops won’t have Blu-ray capable drives for some time,” Steven E.F. Brown reports for The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area.
“News reports quoted Jobs saying Apple would wait until ‘things settle down’ before incorporating a product that would push up the price of Apple’s notebooks,” Brown reports.
“Jobs spoke at an event showing off new Apple notebook computers on Tuesday. He said Blu-ray discs are great when it comes to watching movies, but said their licenses are too complex. If demand grows for Blu-ray drives in Apple computers, the company will consider adding them later,” Brown reports.
Full article here.
Erik Gruenwedel reports for Home Media Magazine, “Apple is a founding board member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, which perhaps gives it first-hand exposure to a licensing process that mandates encryption, related DRM safeguards and is reportedly cumbersome and expensive.”
Gruenwedel reports, “Steve Baker, VP of industry analysis for NPD Group, believes the number of companies with a hand in the licensing process dissuaded Apple, which he said has migrated toward digital distribution rather than packaged media. ‘[Apple is] not trying to be everything to everyone like Netflix or Blockbuster,’ Baker said. ‘They’re going to keep trying to deliver economy around digital downloads. I still question why anybody would question or care whether they have Blu-ray.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Christopher G.” for the heads up.]
You wanna know hwy there’s no Blu-ray in Macs? Here’s why: Apple iTunes Store sells 200 million TV shows; ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC offer primetime lineups in HD – October 16, 2008
Wow is that hwy, NDM? Thkans!
No need for Blu-Ray.
“Don’t hold your breath for Blu-ray, Macs”
Yes, breathe in through your nose….
(I heard)
Blu-Ray is stillborn. With PPV and on-demand from the cable companies, iTunes and other web distributors as competition, BR will never be more than a niche player. (in pun intented, but fun anyway!)
I can’t remember the last time I put a disc of any kind in my computer. I’m sure Apple’s goal is to get rid of the optical drive altogether. Just think of the space inside the notebooks that will free up. If there was a 15in MacBook Air I would be all over it. Maybe once the optical drive is gone for good, they’ll stick the power brick in there…
Want Blu-Ray for your Mac…works with Toast 9. http://www.macsales.com (Other World Computing)
Not affiliated with, just a customer.
Blu-ray makes a lot of sense in Apple TV. The digital downloads can’t touch the quality and I still like to collect my movies and stick them on a shelf. It’s the ultimate in portability. They can hold off for a while but eventually, we’re going to want to burn our HD home movies to disc.
As an event videographer this is bad news. I realize that disc media won’t be around forever, but too many people want to keep their weddings/birthdays/anniversaries on physical media and the fact that Macs don’t support Blu-ray with their drives or their software (Final Cut Studio) make it harder for Mac based guys like me to compete in the field.
Apple needs to add this as an option for professionals, even if it comes at a premium price.
iTunes store is great for the U.S. What about the rest of the world? In my country iTunes store sells only music. So, yes, I want Blu-ray.
Blu-Ray is nothing more than the movie industry’s attempt to control copy protection EVEN MORE than they already do. We should all hope that Blu-Ray NEVER takes off, for the sake of the consumer’s rights.
Doesn’t BlueRay require HDMI? And HDMI is incapable of driving a 30 inch Apple monitor. That alone would give Apple pause.
And Apple always wants as few ports on their laptops as possible. Having HDMI and the mini-display connector thingie ain’t gonna happen.
I just pray the mini-display connector thingie really does become an industry standard.
For everyone who claims that Blu-ray is stillborn, or has no future, would you please open the door and come out of your house for the moment? HD downloads are technologically possible for about 5% of the US population. Globally, the percentage is a rounding error. Could someone please explain to me how is the world outside of that 5% of US households going to get their HD content?
Blu-ray clearly has a purpose and a solid future. As for Blu-ray in Mac, this sounds perfectly reasonable. The Vista mess is a big mess and one of the reasons for it is the DRM mess required by Blu-ray playback. Apple just won’t compromise their QT and iTunes playback that much, only to allow a few people today to play the few available Blu-ray discs on their laptops.
However, Blu-ray authoring is another matter alltogether, and Apple will need to jump in there right now. Steve declared 2006 ‘The Year of the HD’. We’re almost 3 years later and we still don’t have a completely integrated, smooth HD authoring workflow in iLife, the way we do SD. Blu-ray disc burning (and Blu-ray-R discs) aren’t necessary in order to deliver Blu-ray formatted content. People are buying HD camcorders in increasing numbers. There are many sub- $600 models out there, and they all shoot at 1080p/i. We can easily capture/import that HD video into iMovie 08, but how do we get it to play on grandma’s Blu-ray player? Currently, only Toast Titanium 9 and Adobe Encore can do it. The workflow is very clunky and unintuitive. We need iDVD to grow up and become iBlu-Ray. Ordinary DVD-R and DVD-R DL discs can still hold up to 1 hour of full HD in Blu-ray format. This would make life a lot easier, and would finally catch up with Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Studio, Cyberlink PowerDirector, which can not only author BluRay-formatted content, but edit AVCHD directly. No Mac application can currently edit AVCHD; those that can transcode it into something else (AIC, or Apple ProRes), adding transcoding artifacts into the video.
1.5 Gb HD Movie downloads can’t compare with 50 GB of HD Content. Something is missing and it is quality.
I have seeing many TV Shows in HD and movies and I have never used a Bluray or HD DVD player.
Hard copy of movies or TV shows are doing to disappear eventually, so why does anybody wants to stick to a decadent technology?
For a while, it looked like the Final Cut suite of applications was becoming the industry standard. But now, Apple is driving indie film makers who need to author HD content to other platforms. Sure Joe Six Pack is perfectly happy to download movies on iTunes, but what about people who have to make a living producing HD content? If DVD Studio Pro won’t support Blu Ray soon, I’m going to have to hold my nose and buy a PC and use it strictly for Blu Ray. Now, someone tell me, how is this good for Apple?
@ predrag
spot on. and nicely said.
Steve, did you get that?
I don’t give a crap about BR.
If I finally decide to get one, I will buy a standalone, I would never use my laptop or desktop to play BR movies. This is nuts.
And for data, DVDs are still too unreliable so why would I need even denser and probably less reliable disks?
What is the issue here? Does this smack of Sony et al trying to protect PSP as they did with DAT? If that is the case, I can understand AAPL’s stand on the matter.
If not, then perhaps we should all hung back and see how the dust settles before we decide whether or not the better technology was shafted.
Sometimes as has been seen in the past, a company can create a stupendous product and then fluff it by trying to go it alone thinking that all the spoils will be theirs. for example:- AAPl’s firewire, Sony’s Betamax & DAT, HD DVD, Creative’s MP3 players. Do you have any other examples?
@ Predrag
You are absolutely correct. Content producers need an end-to-end HD system. I not talking CBS or Warner Bros, I’m talking about College media dept, churches, non-profits, local news, etc.
BlueRay will go gangbusters as soon as they start coming out with $150 BR players. Apparently one thing that’s keeping that from happening is the convoluted licensing.
Maybe if the DisplayPort becomes an industry standard, BlueRay will have to support it as well. In which case, we will all owe Apple a huge thanks.
Hey, ever heard of “The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area”?
Neither have I, and I live there.
It’s not just for movies – I’d love to be able to backup my iTunes to a single blu-ray disk instead of the multiple DVDs I have to use now.
What good is blu ray for a wedding videographer when more than 99% of computer consumers don’t even have a Blu ray drive to play it on.
don’t be fooled ppl
the whiners arent going to pay $300 more for blu ray drives in laptops or $15 for blank discs. They can today buy blu-ray from 3rd party companies, but they’re not, they’re whining instead, i’m not fooled. I’m a video editor, I know. Are you guys really going to spend over $15,000 for HD cams, monitors, drives, and media in a bad economy and risk bankruptcy? No! The few that have a VERY successful HD business will proceed with or without Apple. I had to buy a $500 DVD-R drive when they first came out, why can’t you afford blu-ray drives and Toast 9?
Are you or aren’t you in business?
I also watch HD downloads (720 & 1080), so paying $400 for a Blu-ray player to watch a $20 movie is TOTALLY FANTASTIC,
if your the guy SELLING it and not BUYING it. Digital downloads are cost effective and great quality. I’ve bought 750 songs off itunes ($750) versus 700 cds x $15 = $10,000 plus!! Physical media is not worth the price or trouble.
Blu ray only needs to be an option for professionals for right now. I agree with that all the way. For consumers, people its apple, they are going to charge a premium for you to have it. Wait. instead of hoping for bluray to backup your itunes library, lets hope apple would allow us to “back it up to drive” rather than disk. that would be so much cheaper than a disc. you could easily get one of those pocket drives with enough space and put it in a firesafebox. that would benefit everyone alot quicker than paying for expensive blu-ray.
I loooooove Blu-Ray. Athough he picture quality is variable (good to fantastic) the sound is fabulous.
I would love it in my computer for archiving purposes (pictures, music etc). 40-50 Gb chiunks would be perfect.
I want it.
Excellent post Pre-Drag.