Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven!h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu!muvms3!mcguffey
From: mcguffey@muvms3.bitnet (Michael McGuffey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Why is Apple pushing CD-ROMs?
Message-ID: <15210@muvms3.bitnet>
Date: 27 Mar 90 11:20:10 GMT
References: <22775@topo.UUCP> <-286499949@hpcupt1.HP.COM> <858@ashton.UUCP> <1134@vector.Dallas.TX.US> <7409@goofy.Apple.COM> <33521@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Organization: Marshall University
Lines: 82

In article <33521@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, lange@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Trent Lange) writes:
> In article <7409@goofy.Apple.COM> dwb@sticks.apple.com (David Berry) writes:
> 
> Why is Apple pushing CD-Roms and not Erasable Optical drives?
> 
> If I were Apple, I'd be *embarrassed* trying to hawk this limited,
> expensive, and dead technology when NeXT sells optical drives that
> can do everything CD-Roms do and "a whole lot more."

Erasable-optical disks cannot store 500+ MB per disk without someone 
turning the disk over or buying an expensive Juke-box to do it for them.
Erasable-optical disks cannot (as far as I am aware) be pressed in high
volume at a cost of around $2 per disk, but must be individually
recorded ala Magtape and Floppy diskettes at a very high cost.  Why 
distribute data which will, for the most part, remain stagnant
and Read-Only on an expensive erasable medium.  Particulary when most data
comes with quarterly or even monthly updates.

I will give you the "a whole lot more" statement. :-)

> Sure, after you've spent hundreds of dollars on a CD-Rom, you can have
> access to SpInside Mac, AU/X, and maybe another CD with a dictionary and
> thesaraus (both are nice).  But then what?  There is *no way* that I or
> probably most other (non-developer) Mac users are going to spend the 
> $600 dollars or whatever it is just to do that.

Try looking in the latest Educorp catalog at the pages and pages of
clip-art, clip-sounds, databases, books (The Whole Earth Catalog, The 
Guiness Disk of World Record), photography, Med-Line, etc., available 
on CD-ROM.  Add to that the vast amount of data distributed by the Census 
Bureau, Dept of Agriculture, and others on CD-ROM.  Most applications for 
this data exist on MS-DOS compatible PC's, but with the coming of Statistical
Visualization software such as SAS Institutes' JMP, the market is opening
up to the Macintosh environment.

> 
> On the other hand, I definitely *would* consider spending the $2000
> that NeXT charges for an erasable optical drive.  Now *there* is
> something useful.  Who couldn't use a 300 Meg removable drive?
> With that, the availability of software on CDs from Apple and elsewhere
> would just be the icing on the cake.
>

The current price from Pinnacle Micro for a single Optical Disk System
with controller for the Mac is around $5200 (government and university 
price is around $4150.) @quantity 1.  Media is around $250 ($230) per disk.
Media was expected to drop to the $50 price that NeXT is/will asking, but 
that has yet to come true.  I suspect that NeXT and/or Canon used the
drive and disk as a loss-leader for that big infusion of capital that gave
Canon sole Asian marketing rights. (This is purely a guess on my part!)
I was told during a Marketing show that Steve Jobs REALLY wanted the drive 
for his machine and took a drive before any quasi-standard had emerged.
Hence the Canon drive may be on his machine, but it is not compatible with
the Sony drive/disk or the other major player whose name escapes me at this
time.

> 
> Surely Apple could either contract with Canon or some other optical
> manufacturer to sell their own optical drives, or at least bless
> an optical standard for the Mac and distribute their CDs on it.
>

They have blessed an optical standard and do distribute their CD's on it.

Theirs.

> - Trent Lange

-- michael

PS: Although it may not sound like it, I really do like the erasible optical
    concept, especially when one drive (such as Pinnacle's) can float from 
    Mac to PC to VAX to Sun with only the purchase of an additional controller
    card.  But I believe things have their place, and the Erasable-optical is
    just not suited to the distribution of large amounts of data.

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Michael McGuffey, Senior Software Applications Analyst
Phone:    304/696-3212			University Computer Center 
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