Apple to soon ship Macs with Blu-ray players?

by Nick Doerr { Jan 3rd 2008 at 3:00PM }

Apple computers and laptops, over the last few years, have become very trendy and "cool" to have. Perhaps it's their stability, their operating system, or their battery life (something this poor old laptop could use more of). Wall Street analyst Shaw Wu has caught wind of some reports stating that next-gen video support has been decided in favor of Blu-ray and future computers will ship with players built in.

Since Wu is also an analyst, there was a little guesswork involved, as the official announcement will come at the Macworld Expo later this month. Perhaps, Wu offered, Apple will have combo drives -- support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD. But Apple has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association. In the end, it's anyone's guess until the big Expo, but from what we understand, Apple may be leaning towards the Blu.

[via N4G]

Tags: apple, blu-ray, mac

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Josh Hughes @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:08PM

Awww man LOL my iMac is less than 6 months old--darn! Oh well, good for Apple, and good for PS3 owners---Steve (my PS3) and iSteve (my iMac) have just became good platonic friends!!!

ryan @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:16PM

yeah, this aint good for MS and HD-DVD. i love my 360 and all but lets face it, times are changing. blu-ray and PS3 look to be the future of media and entertainment.

i liked the idea of having a bunch of cool games to play with this holiday season so i got a 360. next year it's all about the PS3 and will finally (hopefully) prove that blu-ray is the better HD media.

Dehshizknight @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:30PM

I've been thinking about getting a new computer. Maybe I'll finally take the plunge and switch to Mac. Lol.

What I'm really waiting for is built-in Blu-ray burners. And a stand-alone Blu-ray burner for my dad (home video editing).

Andy @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:35PM

Does anyone else think Itunes would be perfect for PS3?

This is good news for Blu but I still don't think either format will succeed.

I'd take Apple support over Microsoft support any day. As Apple actually sells hardware and software while Microsoft just deals with software.

PriceIsRight @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:15PM

I'd rather have Rhapsody...

bs6268d @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:53PM

dang just got a MacBook for chirstmas

hopefully connect ps3 comes

bs6268d @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:04PM

dang just bought a macbook for Christmas

Ne word on connect ps3

KingKaid @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:49PM

This is news? Apple has always been in favor of Blu-ray.

Dustin @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:22PM

Yea. A while ago, there was a list of supporters for both Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Apple was listed under Blu-ray. I think at the up coming expo, they will announce computers/laptops with an optional Blu-ray player. Though to get 1080p, those have to be some pretty hefty (as in detailed) screens. But looking at the resolutions of current Apple screens, its possible.

The Clunge @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:26PM

I'm typing this on my trusty old PPC Powerbook, and can tell you if battery life had been a deciding factor I wouldn't have kept it for long.

From what I've heard, Steve Jobs' next big announcement in a couple of weeks is a very light Tablet-PC style device with iPhone style touch controls and NO optical drive at all. That's not to say they won't have Blu-Ray support in other machines, but if the rumour turns out to be true, they may be moving away from optical media and the battery sapping motors and laser beams needed to spin them and read them.

Popfrogs @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:36PM

These days, with the speed and price of usb keychain drives, there are less reasons than ever to haul a bulky CD/DVD drive around in your laptop. The less moving parts you have in a laptop the better and the proliferation of solid state hard drives is proving this.

Tim Parsons @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:51PM

,.. iPS3 ?

jango fett @ Jan 4th 2008 6:49AM

lol. that'd be cool.

leiwei @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:54PM

There're already pc blu-ray burners that can do 2x recording to bd as well as burn to dvd. There's also a bd burner coming soon from panasonic for laptops. Apple releasing a machine w/ a bd drive is a possibility. Besides, companies in Japan such as Sony and Sharp have released laptop skus w/ bd drives.

leiwei @ Jan 3rd 2008 5:03PM

Unfortunately, disc drives will still be around for those people that like to have something physical in their hands when they purchase things such as movies and software. Even if everything becomes downloadable media, there needs to be a medium to back up these downloads. Backing up on a usb thumb drive is too slow compared to burning away on a disc, and I'd probably need an 8.0 gig usb stick for whatever price they go at these days if I wanted to backup a large file. I can do the same with a cheap ol 20 or 50 pack of DVD9s I can probably get at Fry's for $5 after rebate. Aside from that, SSD isn't that fast compared to SATA yet, the longevity of the drives don't make them viable for the enterprise, and the price isn't favorable among consumers. I think if I remember a 32 (or maybe it was 64) gig SSD for a laptop is an additional $800-1000 currently.

Popfrogs @ Jan 3rd 2008 5:39PM

I guess you've been out of the game for awhile. Currently, USB thumb drives are capable of read speeds up to 35MB/sec and write speeds up to 30MB/sec, and that's changing as each new generation of chips shrink. They're not too expensive either, I think we picked up an 8GB Corsair Survivor for around $150. It's one of the fastest portable drives I've seen. SSD drives, as you mentioned, are still expensive but a 64GB SSD as part of a Dell laptop package adds about $900 to the price.

Eventually everything is going this direction, as memory chips get faster and cheaper. 10 years from now the only place you'll see hard drives will be in old computers or network closets in the IT department.

mccomber @ Jan 3rd 2008 5:34PM

I'm looking forward to having a good way to back up my data in a truly secure way, rather than just relying on redundancy of hard drives that can all fail. Being able to put it all on a few burnable BD is definitely preferable to anything else right now.

Anthony @ Jan 3rd 2008 6:14PM

I think the rumours of them dropping an internal optical drive in their macbook (or alternative laptop) range will probably be true. And then optional blu-ray for Mac Pros..

leiwei @ Jan 3rd 2008 6:21PM

@Pop
yea been out for awhile since changing my profession many years back. The 2.0gig lexar thumb drive i have is pretty slow. I was going to pick up an 8.0gig at Fry's for the black friday sale, unfortunately all the $39.99 ones after instant rebate were taken away and only the $150 skus were available. Still, i'd rather burn onto dvds that I know can at least be read on my dad's ancient computer w/ the usb ports way in the back. >=) I agree though, harddrives will be a thing of the past. I really can't wait for SSDs to be super affordable, but it seems the prices for it are already dropping at a good rate. Same goes for BD players. I recall the month before the PS3, the Sony BD player was going for $999. Now a Samsung one can be had for $270. Only other hopeful wish is that SSDs have larger storage capacities upward to 500gig at the least, though that's probably 1-2 yrs from now at affordable prices.