When will Superdrives be Standard ?

[MacSA]

What do you think the odds are of the Superdrive being a standard feature of Apple's new hardware starting early next year? The iMacs and Powerbooks all have Superdrive now as a standard feature. Do you think we will see it in the new iBooks and Mac Mini's?

Surely Apple can't continue to sell an iBook in the £700 price range that still uses CDRW? I'd be pretty disappointed and a little shocked if it were.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I would guess that the iBooks and minis will get single layer superdrives as standard pretty soon while the iMacs and Pro line all get double layer.

But on the other hand a really cheap iBook that still has a combo wouldn't be to bad to have either. I know I would get that, and spend my money on HD and RAM instead. How often do you really need to burn a whole DVD while "on the road"? A CD is nice to be able to burn anywhere, but DVDs can wait until I get home to my external double layer LaCie burner (never actually bought anything but single layer media, though... ).

 

[Passante]

I'm starting to think optical drives are optional Except for burning an occasional audio disk I seldom use mine.

 

[miloblithe]

Aren't Blu-Ray drives going to enter the mix soon? I think there will still be a range of good-better-best.

 

[d_and_n5000]

Probably. I'll just be happier if I can get a SuperDrive. And God only knows how Apple always do waht will make me happy. What would make me really happy would be a free, unblemished, still in box iBook. It's gonna happen cause I want it to happen. Watch.

Really, somewhat likely, but you just can't predict what Apple's gonna do. Remember the 160 MB iMac iSight hard drive at the special event in October?

 

[NYmacAttack]

I would hope that they would become standard. Especially now that burning DVD's is an everyday thing, like if you want to back up your hard drive for only a couple bucks. BUt with Appkle who knows what they will do.

 

[adk]

I don't think ibooks will get Superdrives until there is a new kind of recordable media for the pro series to have, such as Blu-Ray-R or HD-DVD-R. There has to always be a way for the powerbook to be a step up from the ibook.

 

[shadowmoses]

They should become standard especially as they dont cost much more that Combo's nowdays, hopefully by 6 months time all models will include some kind of superdrive,

Shadow

 

[cwedl]

By the end of 2006 I think we will see blu-ray in Powermacs, double layer dvd burners in powerbooks and iMacs and single layer dvd burners in iBooks.