RSSAnalyst: Blu-ray Macs will premiere at Macworld
By Tim Conneally | Published January 3, 2008, 4:57 PM
AppleInsider has posted predictions from American Technology Research analyst Shawn Wu that point to new Macs with Blu-ray drives premiering at Macworld on January 15.
Since Apple has held a seat on the Blu-ray consortium for years already, and CEO Steve Jobs is on the board of directors at Blu-ray supporter Disney, it seems that if Apple was to align with a next-gen format, Blu-ray would be favored.
Wu said, however, that there's also an off chance of Apple releasing a combo HD-DVD and Blu-ray drive instead.
An overhauled Mac Pro workstation, which is expected in the first quarter of 2008, has been rumored to be one of the first systems by the company with a Blu-ray compatible drive.
But such predictions are still only rumors, as excitement and speculation about new Apple products intensifies with Macworld drawing closer.
Reports of a lighter, NAND flash memory-based Mac sub-notebook continue on many sites. Rumors --which sound much like educated guesses based on Apple's naming trends-- are that the new notebook will be named either "MacBook mini" or "MacBook Slim."
The (near) future of video is digital downloads. Blu-ray and HD-DVD will be short-lived. The physical media format will begin to die in 5 years.
Look at Cable and Satellite OnDemand services, and XBox Live. These are just the beginning. As prices for video downloads become more competitive, the convenience of downloading any movie to your computer and/or TV box in 20 minutes compared to going to a store will overshadow buying physical discs.
I believe HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will be the last of its kind.
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People still buy CDs. That's a physical media that has not died.
I just bought a book (a second edition from 1967 that has not needed updates or bugfixes since) that could propably have been downloaded in 3 seconds...
Still I want the physical book because I want to _have it_. Own it. Physically. So that is why you are just wrong. I'm pretty sure, people who do NOT get the physical part of life, like you, will gladly buy something virtual, like a movie, but the rest of us, the majority, will want to wrap our presents in paper, have them on the shelf, and toy around with the boxes while smelling the fresh smell of the printed booklet.
I believe screens will become bigger and there will be a need for even a bigger media and that bandwidth will not be there when it happens. We'll have Super HD and Ultra HD and True UD and XD2 thats 256.000x128.000 pixels straigt into your brain. From a "disc" - a physical media.
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Is it because Microsoft supports HD-DVD? Is that why there getting Blu-Ray?
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This is all hardware sideshow. The big announcement will be a second version of the iphone, with GPS and Flash.
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Yes, add Blo-Ray to the Mac and jack up the price another $1000. Apple is notorious for charging close to a 100% premium on whatever hardware they sell. Maybe they can spend another few hundred million dollars constantly plugging their overpriced crap on every TV channel like they do with the iPod. Snore.
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"Yes, add Blo-Ray to the Mac and jack up the price another $1000. Apple is notorious for charging close to a 100% premium on whatever hardware they sell."
- Yes indeed, they are notorious for including the wrong single proprieary format, charging a small fortune for it, seeing it refuse to sell and then having to back down and go dual format at a slightly more reasonable cost.
Same old same old.
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Another nail in the coffin of the limited HD-DVD format. People are going to be burning Blu-Ray discs on their Macs and playing them on their TV via the Blu-Ray player they will also buy.
Looks like I will have to pick up a PS3 now to complement my Wii.
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You are right Mac has 4% of the market a real threat.
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OMG!!!!ELEVENTY LOLZ Teh Macz arez taking overz the worldz cuz Pit sayz so with their AMAZING Marketshare the "Final Nail" is comingz! Steve Jobz for Prez! 5000!
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Considering the web-enabled features, and the better implementation of interactivity in the 'limited HD DVD format', does that make Blu-ray the 'crippled, trying to catch-up in features' format?
When Mac's marketshare gets within a stone's throw of the PC, then this may be of importance...not before.
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Pitdingo,
What is wrong with you? Are you retarded or something?
You are what we call a pimple on society's ass.
You sound an awful lot like Dave with your "Another nail in the coffin of the limited HD-DVD format" and since niether one of you have any credibility, I would have to say you are him.
I think you made up having a Wii just to hide behind another nickname and bash Microsoft and HD-DVD.
I can't figure out how you wake up each morning and think you are doing the planet one bit of good by being here. I'm sure you already know this and have no self esteem and go through life taking your frustrations out on everybody and everything because so many people have it better than you.
It's fun looking down on you from the top of the pyramid though.
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You just made Mountain Dew come out of my nose I laughed so hard. You know how much that stings? Thanks a lot!
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"People are going to be burning Blu-Ray discs on their Macs and playing them on their TV via the Blu-Ray player they will also buy."
- Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
LMFAO
Like that's even possible on most Blu-ray players.
Not.
You're just another ill-informed fu*kwit shill who occasionally pretends to 'support' someone other than Sony et al, t*tdingo2.
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LOL
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lol
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If im going to purchase a HD drive for a laptop, id prefer an external. Nothing against the technology, but if it goes pair shaped its costly to replace. And being able to use on another computer would be the bonus. whether the USB can cope with the transfer rate would be an issue.
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Thus why USB 3 is supposed to be announced properly this year, and available in approximatley 2 years.
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Apple leading the way as usual.
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yes, apple leading the way by not being the first...man some people, lol
http://www.eweek.com/art...2/0,1895,1967964,00.asp
http://www.gearlog.com/2...ray_laptop_dell_xps.php
http://www.engadget.com/...ay-hd-dvd-combo-writers/
http://forevergeek.com/g..._drives_to_desktops.php
BUT, I couldn't really tell if you are a dense fan boy or being sarcastic...I hope you're being sarcastic. If not...that's sad, hehe
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I think your comment was just to start flame wars. They have cool products, but poor performance, the iPod is a joke compared to Sansa in sound quality and the iPhone cant connect directly to an Exchange Server, which is all our company uses.
Cool interfaces, crappy real world features and performance. Sort of like a turd wrapped in gold leaf.
You sound like an Appple a** kisser with a comment like that. By the way, I/we own two iPods, so don't call me a MS fanboy.
As far as the HD-DVD / Blu Ray battle goes, I hope a third format comes along so I can watch everyone go crazy.
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I listened to a Sansa today and it sounded very flat. The guy who had one at work, said he wanted to try out the cheaper Sansa, and is sorry for it.
He said he is getting an iPod this weekend and giving the crappy Sansa to his son.
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Boy it really ticks you off that someone has negative things to say about an Apple product. By the way Hollywood is right the sound on an iPod does suck. It is perfect for you.
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You sure talk a lot for having Steve's d*** in your mouth.
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Yes, we are all sure you are telling the truth since you have absolutely no credibility here.
Take your BS to someone who might be stupid enough to actually believe you.
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He's a typical pathological liar who has no credibility and I don't think he even owns an iPod or a Wii for that matter.
I think it's one of Dave's aliases that slipped through the cracks because this moron claims to own a Wii so everyone will think he's someone else.
That's the funniest part, whether he's lying or telling the truth, he's still a complete idiot.
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BS, you don't have any friends.
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Please....
Have you upgraded to the new crappy I mean Leopard? And you might argue that Vista is a pig. Right, I have a dual core mac running on 2.2 GHz with 4GB or RAM after installing the new OS my performance dropped by us much as 40 percent. How about the new system restore feature delete not only the archives but the original files feature.
When M$ releases and new OS you can tell the difference and people might argue about it but eventually they come to understand that the features are great. Now for the mac different OS features. I can only tell the difference between os 9 an os X but not much if any between the different feline versions.
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Hollywood_,
If as the handle suggests, this fool (Pitdrongo) does indeed come from the land of OZ, what can I do other than hang my head, and shelter from the embarrassment?
Yet, perhaps he is from a land of OZ, simply one we are not familiar with.
Back to the point of this issue, I cannot see Jobs locking Apple into this proprietary format, think by now he is aware of the impact this will have on his business model. A been there done that scenario if you like. 'Though he may now be on a path of flash interfaces, bling & glitter rather than product quality.
Must stress that this is nothing more than speculation on my part, will wait and see with dire interest.
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My Sony A800 walkman has superior sound quality to an ipod - i would not at all be suprised if Sansa also had superior sound too as the ipods is nothing to rave about.
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MAYBE there will be a new macbook. i doubt it will be called either the slim or the mini. no one can say until they announce them... if they even exist.
as far as bluray vs hd vs combo, with the cd +/- formats, apple went with a proprietary and then a combo drive as soon as they weren't prohibitively expensive to buy for consumers. It wouldn't be shocking to see them back the non-microsoft format AGAIN and adopt a combo player as soon as one entered the market at an inexpensive range
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