Blu-ray apparently isn't coming to Macs
Steve Jobs is allegedly e-mailing customers again. This time, the Apple CEO reportedly lays out his reasons for not bringing Blu-ray to the Mac Mini.
The more Apple customers pelt Steve Jobs' in-box, the more he seems to respond. But unlike the last flurry of e-mails that were made public on iPhone and iPad issues, this time Jobs is apparently expounding on why Blu-ray won't be coming to Macs.
According to the MacRumors fan site, which posted an e-mail exchange, one of its readers e-mailed the Apple CEO to ask why a Blu-ray drive didn't make its way to the company's newly updated Mac Mini.
In Jobs' apparent response, he seemed unconvinced of the value of Blu-ray. He supposedly said it doesn't make much sense to include it in the company's computers.
"Blu-ray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD," MacRumors reported Jobs as saying. "It will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats."
The customer wasn't done, though. The person said that Jobs may be right about the long term but that currently Blu-ray's superior video quality and storage capacity makes it an ideal format for Mac owners.
Once again, Jobs apparently disagreed. The film business is moving away from physical media, he reportedly said, and Apple plans to stick with the industry."The downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue," Jobs reportedly said. "I think you may be wrong. We may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over."
Of course, Jobs' apparent comments have an element of self-preservation in them. Currently, Apple offers customers the ability to buy or rent films and television shows through iTunes. By bundling the Mac Mini without a Blu-ray drive, but with an HDMI port for connectivity on an HDTV, Apple seems to be begging users to load up iTunes and download some of its HD video content from the device. A Blu-ray drive could conceivably throw a wrench in that plan.
Beyond that, Jobs has a well-known, and seemingly lasting, distaste for Blu-ray. Back in October 2008, the Apple CEO said that licensing and delivering Blu-ray to customers is a "bag of hurt."