“The competition between the competing next-generation optical disk technologies of Blu-ray and HD DVD has entered a new phase, as optical drive makers start rolling out the first products based on the rival technologies,” Jim Dalrymple reports for Macworld. “Apple enjoys a long track record of embracing emerging technologies—think FireWire, Bluetooth, and wireless networking, among others—and incorporating them into its offerings. Also consider that Apple is on the board of directors for the Blu-ray Disc Association, and it’s not hard to envision a future where Macs are sporting Blu-ray-based drives.”
“As with any future product, Apple is keeping its plans for Blu-ray under wraps. But industry analysts don’t think we’ll have long to wait before Apple puts a Blu-ray drive in an Intel-based Mac,” Dalrymple reports. “The most likely candidate? The as-yet unreleased machine that will replace the Power Mac as Apple’s professional desktop offering. ‘Apple’s past practices favor bringing new optical technologies to professional systems first,’ said Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox. ‘DVD-RAM and DVD-R formats are excellent examples.’”
“Ross Rubin, director of analysis at market-research firm NPD Group, agrees that Apple will work with the professional machines first. However, noting that Intel-based pro desktops have yet to appear, he predicts Blu-ray drives won’t wind up in Apple systems for a few more months,” Dalrymple reports.
Full article here.
Related articles:
Ricoh creates ‘universal’ optical disk lens; reads and writes Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD, and CD – July 10, 2006
Blu-ray Disc blank media hits U.S. shelves – May 22, 2006
Blu-ray Disk Associaton: we’ll win DVD format war over HD-DVD – May 12, 2006
RUMOR: Apple asks studios to include iPod video content on Blu-ray discs – April 25, 2006
Sony postpones PlayStation 3 release until November due to Blu-ray delay – March 15, 2006
Broadcom announces decoder chip that plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD – January 03, 2006
gonna hold out for the perfect home entertainment center with a mac mini with blu ray. Is there a blu ray superdrive?
im good at stating the obvious to!
Say it with me… WWDC
I wonder if he knows that Macs support HD DvD right now. D’oh.
O.K. “WWDC” What did I win?
How ’bout a super Superdrive that does both?
One kinda hates to make the wrong bet on the future…
thegrey,
You’re forgetting that Apple is on the Blu-ray board, and are major supporters of that technology. So in fact, there is ZERO likely ood that we are going to put HD-DVD drives in Macs.
And you can’t buy one single Mac anywhere that can burn HD-DVDs. So by supported, you mean a Mac can hook up to an XBOX 360 with an external HD-DVD drive, they’re not even out yet!
Bozo.
Steve
Apple is backing Blue-Ray, but they have stated publicly that they are “supporting” both Blue-Ray and HD-DVD. This probably means that the new Superdrives will burn Blue-Ray discs but will read either. Just my guess.
Also, today, the same analyst is reporting a 99% likelihood that water will still be wet tomorrow.
I would like to see those “do it all” drives from Rioch. They look promising.
The PS3 will cost as much as a Mac Mini and that includes BD. Apple should introduce a new Mini that includes BD and the new Intel GPU to steal some of SONY’s thunder. I for one would rather have a Mini. Front Row is much easier to control than any user interface SONY creates.
When Blu-Ray is available on Mac, I will finally be able to stop using my mom’s computer!!!
Recent reviews of BR performance have been very negative. Is it just that the shops that put content on BR are incompetent? Or is it something inherent in the BR technology itself? This is not a rhetorical question. I plead ignorance.
Apple better make sure that BR technology is sound before they take the plunge. And if the competition to BR takes hold, Apple better supplied multi protocol readers and burners. In Jobs previous life at Apple — before the Scully coup d’etat and at NeXT — Steve made some terrible choices on immature hardware that never panned out — the optical hard drive, for example.
@ LinuxGuy: Actually, the NeXT boxes used MO drives. Although they are not speed demons by any measure, they are a sound, mature technology with many advantages over hard drives and CD’s. I used them for many years as backup and archive media, for which they were unsurpassed, and for light-duty auxiliary storage.