Will Apple or Google ever make a computer or Device with a built-in disc drive?

[froggyboy604]

I think it is unlikely for Apple to make a computer with a disc drive. Apple makes a lot of money by using iTunes/Apple App store to sell digital movies, music, and games which you may already own on CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray discs. If users can easily access their disc's movie and music files, people maybe less likely to re-buy the same files music and movies on iTunes.

But, I think there is more of a chance that Google's Chromebook makers like Acer and Asus will release a Chromebook with a disc drive. A lot of more tech-savvy Chromebook users install Ubuntu Linux or Windows onto their Chromebook, so a disc drive would be useful to view files on disc for dual-boot users. Disc are still a popular way to install Ubuntu or Windows from a disc as a dualboot PC because DVD-R are cheap and reliable to use for installing operating systems on a storage drive.

Google could adds support for disc drives in Chrome OS if there is a big demand for Disc drives for people who want to upload their old media files to Sites like YouTube, Google Docs, and Gmail where Google makes money off ads, and paid online storage plans by selling more online storage like 100GB for Gmail and Google Docs once they used more than 5 GB of their free space.

Google makes a lot of money from Advertisements which are embedded on users' videos, apps, photos, and files hosted on YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, etc.

I bet, there are still a lot of original older offline files like home video, self-recorded music, game recordings of older games, TV recordings, and ebooks which are stored on DVD-R disc. Owners of these disc files, and Google can use them to make money on YouTube or Google Play. DVD-R was a very popular format of storing big files over 512MB in 2007 and the past when a 1GB USB Flash drive was $30. A DVD-R disc cost a dollar or less at a store.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

The need for a disc drive is decreasing since software is becoming a online download only thing.

 

[froggyboy604]

The need for a disc drive is decreasing since software is becoming a online download only thing.

I agree, disc software is decreasing in popularity.

But, people with older gear like older video camcorders and recorders may still use video cameras and recorders which used those mini-DVD disc and full size DVD disc to record video, and have plenty of old video and media files which are stored on disc where there are files which they want to store on a hard drive or upload to a website.

 

[2045]

I had no idea that iMacs don't have a disk drive. I just checked and I was totally shocked. God, I hate being poor.

 

[IntoxNitram]

Discs are less popular even in the device makers that traditionally placed on in the hardware. To me, it would be a pointless thing to include and almost a backstep in hardware development for them to add one.

 

[froggyboy604]

I had no idea that iMacs don't have a disk drive. I just checked and I was totally shocked. God, I hate being poor.

I was shocked that the newest Mac Pro did not have a disc drive since the Mac Pro is one of the most popular computers which is used for film, and music production where owning the fastest Mac would be more worth it for saving large 4K video files, and High Quality music files faster.

Disc are still a good way for cheaply, quickly and easily viewing video on a TV since a lot of people still own DVD, Blu-Ray player, or a game console like the PS2, Xbox 360, and PS3 which can play DVD movies, and Blu-Ray with the PS3 which is connected to a TV. Music CDs are convenient for quickly listening to a disc by using a CD player or most DVD and Disc based game consoles which can play music Cds. The Library usually has a DVD player, and TV or PC with a disc drive which they can let people use since most libraries in richer countries like the US and Canada may still lend out dvd movies and cd music.

Discs are less popular even in the device makers that traditionally placed on in the hardware. To me, it would be a pointless thing to include and almost a backstep in hardware development for them to add one.

I agree disc drives are becoming less popular with device makers. I think one of the main reasons for device makers not including a disc drive is that people want to pay cheap price for laptops, and desktops, but still want a faster 2 GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, 1TB storage, and a fast video chip which can play older 3D games like League of Legends, Minecraft and Dota 2. The disc drive is the least used feature for most people, so most cheaper and thin computers don't include one.

But, the disc drive is still be useful for people who work with a lot of data and need to take the data to different computers to work on, and can't afford a faster internet connection like Gigabit Fiber internet which can cost hundreds of dollars a month, or is not available in some places. Larger USB Hard drives, and Flash drives still cost $40 or more instead of a few dollar or cents like Blu-Ray-R disc when you buy them in a pack of 50 or more.

Some people also still want to copy their CD music, DVD, Blu-Ray, game disc data, and other data which they bought on disc format onto a computer's hard drive, so they can access it faster in the future and archival/backup purposes, and these users will need a disc drive to use to extract the data to a hard drive. Generally, an internal SATA Disc drive is faster and more reliable than USB drives which may not be as fast sometimes because USB seems to slowdown more often than internal SATA data connection in my experience, and is more likely to disconnect, or have connection problems related to software and hardware problems.

A disc drive is also a simple way to troubleshoot and fix a computer by using one of the many startup disc utility like the Windows Install disc or Ultimate Boot CD to run a check disk or data recovery program commands in the command prompt when Windows fails to startup.

 

[IntoxNitram]

Even then, external disk drives which plug in through the USB slots more than do the job. Laptops and even home PC's don't need them nowadays.

 

[froggyboy604]

Even then, external disk drives which plug in through the USB slots more than do the job. Laptops and even home PC's don't need them nowadays.

I agree, most users will be fine with external USB CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives.

But, a internal disc drive like a CD-ROM is more convenient since it is built-into the computer, and you don't have to worry about losing a USB cable, or damaging the cable. Internal disc drives are also sometimes more affordable than USB drives, and are less likely to get damaged because of user's dropping it on the floor.

 

[3DWaffle1]

I am not sure what apple and google will do. They are invest a lot of money in ai and self driving cars

 

[froggyboy604]

I am not sure what apple and google will do. They are invest a lot of money in ai and self driving cars

I agree Google may invest a lot of money in AI and Self-driving cars.

Apple still makes iPods Mp3 players. The Apple Watch is somewhat more appealing to older people who like watches. I think Apple may release a computer with a disc again if newer disc release in the future become cheaper, more durable, and faster than USB Flash drives, SSDs, and hard drives. Online storage services like iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive is not useful for people who use slower internet service like 10 Mbps internet which is not fast if you share the connection with many devices and users.