I thought I would put this issue forward to see what the general opinion was on the decline of physical media. With the increase of downloads and the unstoppable onset of the cloud it seems that physical media is having its days numbered, whether we like it or not.
Apple’s attitude in particular seems to be quite stern on the matter. The dropping of the optical drive on the Mac Mini seems like an obvious effort to promote the App Store. Personally, I find it a bit baffling that a machine that is so often cited as a Mac for those making the switch from a PC should lose something that I can’t even manage living without! What about burning discs, ripping CDs or watching films? I couldn’t have gotten through university without burning a disc, I’m not prepared to pay more than a CD for mp3s and iTunes’ film pricing can’t stand up against my
LOVEFiLM subscription. And that’s just me, I can’t even imagine what my dad would say if I told him that the newest version of his computer wouldn’t have anywhere to put a disc in.
I can see the appeal of a disc-free world when it comes to software however. Having recently upgraded to a new iMac, I only installed 3 applications from disc (granted one was a
7-disc install) but the majority of my software was downloaded. I’m quite happy to have a record of my licenses discretely tucked away on my computer and not a great pile of discs all over the place. I was always irritated by a friend of mine at university who wouldn’t have even considered paying a large sum of money for software if he didn’t at least get a disc, despite the fact that it didn’t benefit him in anyway compared to the download option.
Any thoughts? What about Lion’s exclusivity on the App Store? I’ve heard that it’s now going to be made available (for a higher price?) on a memory stick from Apple Stores. As it is, I wouldn’t be able to update my Leopard MacBook without something physical.