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This move is consistent with Apple's corporate strategy; a transition away from desktop computing and physical media, to a range of thin devices accessing onlin

by mjfern 16y ago

This move is consistent with Apple's corporate strategy; a transition away from desktop computing and physical media, to a range of thin devices accessing online media via the cloud. The elimination of the optical drive facilitates smaller devices, and further establishes the importance of connectivity and online media, where Apple is well positioned with its growing collection of cloud services: iTunes, the App Store, the new OS X App Store, and so on. On a side note, this is further bad news for Sony and Blu-ray. The shift from physical to online video is happening much more quickly than most expected. Sony invested billions of dollars into Blu-ray to win the battle against HD DVD, anticipating at least a decade of future royalties. I am certain the expected returns on this investment will never be realized.

ookblah 16y ago
ehh, until we can stream blu-ray quality videos over the internet i doubt it's going anywhere soon.
- pak 16y ago
  The wireless Internet, no less. The Air doesn't have an Ethernet port and many devices in this category are commonly paired with (3,4)G data modems for mobility beyond the range of your own hotspot. I don't think there's a decent way of getting 40 GB of movie onto an Air without plugging something in... and USB memory is still too costly in that range.
  - chroma 16y ago
    802.11g or n is faster than most consumer Internet connections. Nobody's suggesting streaming HD movies over the cell network... yet. Blu-ray discs are 25-50GB, but they contain lots of stuff besides the movie (bonus material and other stuff). Dropping extra features, using newer codecs, and slightly decreasing encoding quality can pare a 720p movie down to 5-6GB. Over a 20Mbit connection, that's a 30-40 minute download. Definitely streamable. In fact Apple, Netflix, and Amazon all do this already. They sacrifice some quality compared to blu-ray, but unlike blu-ray, you don't have to transport a physical disc to your home. Even though blu-ray is higher quality, you have to ship discs or travel to a store to get them. Video on demand is so much more convenient, and the quality is only going to get better as connection speeds and codecs improve.
    - alextgordon 16y ago
      Over a 20Mbit connection, that's a 30-40 minute download. Definitely streamable. Unless you're in Korea, 20Mbit connections are far from commonplace. And in many countries download caps are the norm, which would preclude watching more than a handful of movies a month.
      - chroma 16y ago
        I used 20Mbit in the example because that's what I have. I'm on Comcast, which has a soft cap of 250GB/month. I'd have to watch a movie every day to get close to their limit. A 10Mbit connection would double the download time to 60-80 minutes, which is still fast enough to stream.
        alextgordon 16y ago
        Here in the UK there's a large variance, but caps start at 10GB and those in the region of 40GB are commonplace (there is also a good selection of unlimited providers). And IIRC the average connection speed is 5Mbps, but again many people have 2Mbps or slower. International internet infrastructure has a long way to go before optical media is anywhere near irrelevant.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- ugh 16y ago
  That assumes that people really care whether something is blu-ray quality. I don’t think they do. (Also, technology progresses while blu-ray stays the same.)
beaumartinez 16y ago
Most people lack the bandwidth to be able to stream 720, yet alone 1080 video. I in fact struggle to stream even low-quality YouTube videos without having to wait for it to buffer for a few minutes. Blu-ray's investments returns will never be realised? Blu-ray is far from dead. It is still the only universal way for users to watch high-quality hi-def video. Windows and Linux desktops/laptops will still have Blu-ray/DVD drives. PS3s and Blu-ray players will still be bought. There are vast back-catalogues of discs users will want to play. The fractional market that Macbooks represent (and the even more fractional those with such bandwidth to be able to download and stream hi-def video with ease represents) is minimal. Sony won't even notice this. For those who want to watch Blu-ray videos, users will just have to fork-out for an external drive. And I'm sure Apple will price these fairly (not), and more than a few will be bought. With Apple, the user always comes first.
- chroma 16y ago
  Most people lack the bandwidth to be able to stream 720, yet alone 1080 video. A 1080p Blu-ray rip is usually around 10GB for a 2 hour movie. Streaming 10GB in 2 hours requires a connection speed of around 12Mbit/sec. 720p rips are 5-6GB, so they'd require 6-7Mbit/sec. Apple only offers 720p right now, so most consumer broadband connections should be able to stream their shows. I in fact struggle to stream even low-quality YouTube videos without having to wait for it to buffer for a few minutes. Low quality YouTube videos are 480x360, with bitrates around 900kbps (that's kilobits, not bytes). So there's probably an issue with your ISP or YouTube's CDN. Anyway, back on topic... I'd bet against Blu-ray in the long run. Video on demand has quite a few advantages. It doesn't require the purchase of a new player or optical drive. It offers a shorter time from when you decide, "I want to watch this." to when you actually start watching it. If you don't have the bandwidth to stream a movie, you can still download it faster than it takes to ship the Blu-ray disc. Even if you run to a store and buy/rent the disc (let's say 20 minutes round trip), in that time you could have buffered 1.5GB over a 10Mbit connection. Blu-ray beats streaming when it comes to video quality, but connection speeds and codecs are only going to get better.
  - sandipc 16y ago
tome 16y ago
This move is consistent with Apple's corporate strategy; a transition away from desktop computing and physical media, to a range of thin devices accessing online media via the cloud. This was Apple's strategy well before the cloud, viz. deprecation of the floppy drive before most consumers even knew what the internet was.
krschultz 16y ago
I don't think it is bad news for Blu-Ray. When I want to watch a movie and I don't care how it looks, I'll go with streaming or torrents or Netflix or Blockbuster or Amazon. I get the movie but I don't really care about the quality or the medium. Maybe I watch it on my netbook, or my desktop, or maybe even my TV. That is a cheap throw-away experience. When I buy a Blu-ray, I know it is something I want to watch on my HDTV with my surround sound going and with flawless quality. I probably want to watch it more than once in my lifetime. I bought a couple documentaries on Blu-ray before I even had a blu-ray player, becuase I knew someday they would be cheap and I'd want to have those films in high quality. They're not exactly competiting. It is the difference between McDonalds and a real restaurent. Sometimes I'll stop in McDonalds for a snack, but if I want a steak I'm going somewhere that knows how to do it. That is streaming vs blu-ray for me.

by mjfern 16y ago

ookblah 16y ago

ehh, until we can stream blu-ray quality videos over the internet i doubt it's going anywhere soon.

pak 16y ago
The wireless Internet, no less. The Air doesn't have an Ethernet port and many devices in this category are commonly paired with (3,4)G data modems for mobility beyond the range of your own hotspot. I don't think there's a decent way of getting 40 GB of movie onto an Air without plugging something in... and USB memory is still too costly in that range.
- chroma 16y ago
  802.11g or n is faster than most consumer Internet connections. Nobody's suggesting streaming HD movies over the cell network... yet. Blu-ray discs are 25-50GB, but they contain lots of stuff besides the movie (bonus material and other stuff). Dropping extra features, using newer codecs, and slightly decreasing encoding quality can pare a 720p movie down to 5-6GB. Over a 20Mbit connection, that's a 30-40 minute download. Definitely streamable. In fact Apple, Netflix, and Amazon all do this already. They sacrifice some quality compared to blu-ray, but unlike blu-ray, you don't have to transport a physical disc to your home. Even though blu-ray is higher quality, you have to ship discs or travel to a store to get them. Video on demand is so much more convenient, and the quality is only going to get better as connection speeds and codecs improve.
  - alextgordon 16y ago
    Over a 20Mbit connection, that's a 30-40 minute download. Definitely streamable. Unless you're in Korea, 20Mbit connections are far from commonplace. And in many countries download caps are the norm, which would preclude watching more than a handful of movies a month.
    - chroma 16y ago
      I used 20Mbit in the example because that's what I have. I'm on Comcast, which has a soft cap of 250GB/month. I'd have to watch a movie every day to get close to their limit. A 10Mbit connection would double the download time to 60-80 minutes, which is still fast enough to stream.
      - alextgordon 16y ago
        Here in the UK there's a large variance, but caps start at 10GB and those in the region of 40GB are commonplace (there is also a good selection of unlimited providers). And IIRC the average connection speed is 5Mbps, but again many people have 2Mbps or slower. International internet infrastructure has a long way to go before optical media is anywhere near irrelevant.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
ugh 16y ago
That assumes that people really care whether something is blu-ray quality. I don’t think they do. (Also, technology progresses while blu-ray stays the same.)

beaumartinez 16y ago

Most people lack the bandwidth to be able to stream 720, yet alone 1080 video. I in fact struggle to stream even low-quality YouTube videos without having to wait for it to buffer for a few minutes. Blu-ray's investments returns will never be realised? Blu-ray is far from dead. It is still the only universal way for users to watch high-quality hi-def video. Windows and Linux desktops/laptops will still have Blu-ray/DVD drives. PS3s and Blu-ray players will still be bought. There are vast back-catalogues of discs users will want to play. The fractional market that Macbooks represent (and the even more fractional those with such bandwidth to be able to download and stream hi-def video with ease represents) is minimal. Sony won't even notice this. For those who want to watch Blu-ray videos, users will just have to fork-out for an external drive. And I'm sure Apple will price these fairly (not), and more than a few will be bought. With Apple, the user always comes first.

chroma 16y ago
Most people lack the bandwidth to be able to stream 720, yet alone 1080 video. A 1080p Blu-ray rip is usually around 10GB for a 2 hour movie. Streaming 10GB in 2 hours requires a connection speed of around 12Mbit/sec. 720p rips are 5-6GB, so they'd require 6-7Mbit/sec. Apple only offers 720p right now, so most consumer broadband connections should be able to stream their shows. I in fact struggle to stream even low-quality YouTube videos without having to wait for it to buffer for a few minutes. Low quality YouTube videos are 480x360, with bitrates around 900kbps (that's kilobits, not bytes). So there's probably an issue with your ISP or YouTube's CDN. Anyway, back on topic... I'd bet against Blu-ray in the long run. Video on demand has quite a few advantages. It doesn't require the purchase of a new player or optical drive. It offers a shorter time from when you decide, "I want to watch this." to when you actually start watching it. If you don't have the bandwidth to stream a movie, you can still download it faster than it takes to ship the Blu-ray disc. Even if you run to a store and buy/rent the disc (let's say 20 minutes round trip), in that time you could have buffered 1.5GB over a 10Mbit connection. Blu-ray beats streaming when it comes to video quality, but connection speeds and codecs are only going to get better.
- sandipc 16y ago

tome 16y ago

This move is consistent with Apple's corporate strategy; a transition away from desktop computing and physical media, to a range of thin devices accessing online media via the cloud. This was Apple's strategy well before the cloud, viz. deprecation of the floppy drive before most consumers even knew what the internet was.

krschultz 16y ago

I don't think it is bad news for Blu-Ray. When I want to watch a movie and I don't care how it looks, I'll go with streaming or torrents or Netflix or Blockbuster or Amazon. I get the movie but I don't really care about the quality or the medium. Maybe I watch it on my netbook, or my desktop, or maybe even my TV. That is a cheap throw-away experience. When I buy a Blu-ray, I know it is something I want to watch on my HDTV with my surround sound going and with flawless quality. I probably want to watch it more than once in my lifetime. I bought a couple documentaries on Blu-ray before I even had a blu-ray player, becuase I knew someday they would be cheap and I'd want to have those films in high quality. They're not exactly competiting. It is the difference between McDonalds and a real restaurent. Sometimes I'll stop in McDonalds for a snack, but if I want a steak I'm going somewhere that knows how to do it. That is streaming vs blu-ray for me.