Is apple doing away with physical media?
Apple has been trying to do away with the need for physical
media ever since the company released the original iPod. If you recall some
years back, the music industry was in panic mode due to the rampant piracy
involving physical CDs. Apple helped to save the industry by offering songs
cheaply via iTunes, an idea that caught on like a storm. Users don’t
necessarily want entire CDs at $20 a pop with a bunch of songs they may not
want to listen to. This led to some of the piracy. Apple has allowed users to
purchase individual songs of their own choosing at $.99 a pop.
Apple helped to
save the industry by offering songs cheaply via iTunes
You may have also noticed that Apple hasn’t been catering to
Sony in adding a Blue-ray drive in any of its products. Blue-ray drives are
common in Windows laptops and desktop, yet Apple always seems to leave it out –
even when opting for an optical drive in the form of a DVD drive. It is
possible to purchase external Blue-ray drives and install them on Macs, but
Apple doesn’t include them in their setup.
Apple dropped
support and integration entirely with the release of Final Cut X. this was seen
as a huge criticism among many long-time Final Cut Pro users.
The signs have been present for a few years that Apple was
trying to do away with physical media. According to a Gigaom report from way
back in 2009, ‘Apple has referred to Blu-ray as a bag of hurt and hasn’t made
any obvious plans to endorse the standard any further. The only mention of next
generation technologies is some support for HD-DVDs in DVD Studio Pro (been
there for ages) and limited Blu-ray support in the latest version of
Compressors’.
As of this writing, the latest update to DVD Studio Pro is
the 4.2.2 update, which Apple released in 2009. Apple’s lack of updates for its
two pieces of DVD-creation software, iDVD and DVD studio Pro, are among the
many signs showing the company’s focus has shifted from physical media. DVD
Studio Pro was an integral part of Final Cut Pro and used to come as a free
addition video editing software (before being integrate, it used to even come
as a separate product). Apple dropped support and integration entirely with the
release of Final Cut X. this was seen as a huge criticism among many long-time
Final Cut Pro users.
Is apple’s phasing out of the optical drive?
Bran Linder from LiliPuting asks an interesting question in
a blog post titled: ‘When was the last time you used an optical disc drive?’
His post is based on a DigiTimes report that mentions the next lineup of
Macbook zeros being thinner than ever as a result of the optical drive going to
the way of the dinosaur.
Is apple’s phasing
out of the optical drive?
Apple realizes that comfort, bulk and lightness are more important
today than features such as optical drives. Apple is also influencing the
medium’s demise and the industry will have to follow suit – unless nobody buys
these MacBook Pros and Apple reverts back to including an optical drive in
them, which is unlikely.
However, as Linder points out, the lack of optical drive in
Apple’s next MacBook Pro models still hasn’t been confirmed and we have to
treat it as a rumor – although it comes from supply manufacturers.
Mechanical hard drives vs. solid state drives (SSDS)
Another aspect of storage as it relates to computing is the
hard drive. Apple has been training its fan base to go toward SSD solutions
over the traditional mechanical hard drive for most devices – desktop Macs
notwithstanding. Although I have touched upon Apple’s conservative SSD
offerings in iDevices, the company does see the SSD as a valuable ally – at
least for now. The fact is that SSD storage allows Apple to charge $100 more
per each two-fold increase in each iDevice product. This is something the
company profits from.
Apple has been
training its fan base to go toward SSD solutions over the traditional
mechanical hard drive for most devices – desktop Macs notwithstanding
The other aspect of SSD storage is that it is long lasting
and doesn’t detonate over time like mechanical hard drives do. SSD drives lack
moving parts and are also very quick in data transfer when compared to
traditional hard drives. They have a very scalable and high bandwidth capacity.
There are many advantages to them and they are a lot newer than the traditional
tech Apple is abandoning. One disadvantage for Apple and consumers who want
more local storage is price.
What can we expect from Apple’s future MacBooks and iPad
models? The answer should be self-evident when looking at the direction the
Cupertino tech giant is heading. Expect a lot more emphasis on cloud storage
and possibly more affordable options in terms of the amount of data you will
have at your disposal. Remember, Apple is constructing a huge data center, called
Maiden, in North Carolina with iCloud in mind. Also, expect optical drives to
be left out of more and more Apple devices. Expect more options in terms of HD
content via streaming, and less physical media to be available in retail over
time.
However, don’t expect local storage options to die out
completely. It would be a bit discouraging if this happended and Apple went all
iCloud for those not near a high-bandwidth Wi-Fi connection; or who own Apple
products in third world countries. Apple needs to realize this and continue
providing some sort of an SSD solution for quite some time. Physical media will
definitely be the first aspect of storage to fall.
