On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 14:52, objectwerks inc <[email protected]> wrote: > > The optical drive on computers has many more uses now than the floppy did in > 1997 (not only for SW distribution, but also for media -- music and movies) > AND in 1997 there was a reasonable replacement -- the CD-ROM and CDRW drives. > Today, there are still a lot of people using DVD media for movies (Red Box > is always busy when I see the kiosks and I've seen a few neighbors recently > walking to the mail box with Netflix envelopes) and lots of people still use > their computers to watch things, and still an awful lot of CDs sold (yes CD > sales have tanked percentage wise but there are still a lot of CDs sold).
I still think the majority of optical media users are using these in non-computer devices. BluRay has still not taken off and Apple is betting that it's not worth supporting. Optical media for software and sharing can and has been replaced by USB drives and network transfer. > Since we are talking Apple users, only the Apple computers are considered and > the PC people doing it are mostly irrelevant except for a handful of > switchers. Alright, I'd bet that the vast majority of Apple users aren't using Apple computers as media centers. They're using Apple TVs or other set-top devices. Regardless, Apple clearly prefers that their users use the Apple TV or they wouldn't have removed Front Row from Lion. Overall, when Apple started dropping floppy support, the replacement was essentially the same product in a different form. Software that had been distributed on a physical floppy was now distributed on a physical disc. Here the replacement is a different form entirely. Sure you could argue that USB drives can be an optical media replacement, but they're more expensive per unit. I doubt many software vendors are going to increase their distribution costs by replacing installation media with USB drives. The real replacement for optical media is network transfer. Costs are reduced and convenience is increased. (Yes, it's less convenient if you don't have a network connection and need to reinstall, but this is somewhat analagous to forgetting your installation media. You can always archive multiple installation packages on a single recovery drive.) The transition to network distribution is also easier than transitioning to a new physical media. Your average user already has the network connection, doesn't need to purchase new hardware to support the new form, and external hardware to support the old media is readily available (external USB floppy drives weren't exactly commonplace from what I remember). Yes, optical discs for audio / visual consumption is not as far along in being replaced (though the future is clear), but the components are there and the majority of the user base is not impacted by the disapearance of computer support. Personally, I watch DVDs with a dedicated player, though I do occassionally rip them as well. The few CDs that I buy these days are ripped and stored. At some point I'd like to rip every DVD I own, but the storage for that isn't quite cheap enough (hmm, I should do a survey again of the space that'd be required). The only reason that I actually use CDs is for the lossless audio; I'd certainly be happy to see more lossless audio distribution online. With movies, online distribution generally is already past what DVDs offer. The bottom line as I see it is that it's very appropriate for Apple to drop optical media support and, in doing so, kick the rest of the industry into waking up to the future that's already here. When they dropped floppy support it was a bit closer to informing the industry of what the future would be, not where we already were. Further, if Apple can be the catalyst that spurs the industry to more quickly move to better technology (faster and more widespread broadband, better quality audio and video, etc.) I'm all for it. -- arno s hautala /-| [email protected] pgp b2c9d448 _______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
