Personally ive been ripping the superdrives out of my Macbooks (and iMac) for the last 4 years – I haven’t used optical media for years. All my media is either on hard drives or on servers, I cannot abide optical media now and I cannot see why anyone would want to use it anymore.

The idea of a laptop in which Apple could make it exactly the way they wanted by removing the optical drive and a standard HD would be fantastic. In theory they wouldn’t even need an SSD. In theory Intel could just include their “ssd” chips built in on their motherboard for the best speed possible – depending on how much “customised ability” you wanted – in the future if they could include up to 4tb of these chips easily id be quite happy to not have the option to “upgrade” from that. This would then enable them to buy everything in one board, SSD storage space, memory, and battery in exactly the shape and order they wanted filling the system in anyway they see right and take full advantage of the power and system.

This is what Apple should be looking to do (almost the way they do with iPad/iPhone) and overlook the limitations PC laptops have of having to be a bunch of pieces stuck together than are compatible with other laptops.

I could go on, but I probably shouldnt…

(Yeah, sure, USB is good now, but it sucked big time for a long time while Firewire was great.)

Like FireWire?

The Hard Drive is the new Floppy Disk.

Now if new Macbook Pros ONLY have the flash memory. There’d be a problem as they just aren’t economical in large capacities (nor available in the Terabyte range)

Ideally I’d like to see Macbook Pros with both a flash memory drive for booting, apps and some data, and a traditional hard drive for bulk data ( Media, iTunes & iPhoto libraries, large databases, etc.)

Few things I will say is that I currently have an older car that doesnt have a usb port or interface for an ipod etc for the stereo so I occasionally burn cds with my mac. It is very cool to hear they are doing away with it but I have much use for it (including watchng movies i buy @ work almost every day). On the other hand having an external drive also makes perfect sense as then there would be no moving parts !

Go apple !! whatever which way they decide I have my seatbelt on the bandwagon on tight and a 10 point harness holding me on LOL !

You may argue that Apple picked the right moment, I will argue that others were ahead of their time — which is not always a good thing, people ended up being burned at the stake for that in the past.

I am all for the removal of an optical drive, maybe it’s just time for it to go. It seems to me that only positives will come out of it–possibly lower pricing, more room for other components-like battery, lighter, thinner, more portable computers.

2011 will be a big and interesting year for Apple.

The way I see it, those who manufacture my computer aren’t any different from those making my sandwich. They do it the way I want it. I don’t care what they know, I am the customer, and in the end it’s my way or the highway.

It’s my lunch, I’m eating it, and I’m paying for it. I may like your cooking and respect your professionalism; but if you think you are going to decide what I’m having, well I’ll just go next door where people know their place.

With all due respect, Mr Jobs, Sir.

I believe the reason why copycats haven’t succeeded is simply because Apple has a long term goal. Others don’t, they just want to make great products right now like Apple has. Apple isn’t making great & varying products just because they can. The Apple TV, iPad, iPhone & 2010 Macbook Air point in the general direction of the company’s future. OS X Lion shows the iPod touch, iPhone, iPad & Macbook line up could possibly all to end up running the same software in the near future. Imagine a smarter & more flexible OS X 3-5 years from now running on everything Apple makes minus the current fragmentation issue. Things are going to get very interesting once Apple integrates all their app stores (iOS & OS X) and they figure out a way to have one app work on every one of their products.

Fragmentation is the one major issue that currently plagues both iOS & Android OS. When I compare Apple’s iPad, iPod Touch, TV, iPhone, OS X Lion & consider the rumors of a Macbook Air-like Macbook Pro, it’s clear Apple’s working towards a solution.

As for the flame wars, there’s something about Apple that gets things heated, I agree!

While the Air is appealing, it still doesn’t fit my niche. I still require more onboard storage than the cost of SSD will allow. But as the market makes this more affordable…count me in!