After the release of new MacBook and MacBook Pro computers this week without Blu-ray options, Steve Jobs, during a Q&A session, is quoted as saying:

“Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace”

I was a bit surprised by the comment. Other manufacturers (Dell, HP, Sony) seem to have Blu-ray options on their computers. Apparently it wasn’t so complicated for them (though admittedly easier for Sony).

Fan boys have come to Steve’s defence with comments like “Blu-ray will cost too much – I don’t want to pay extra for a technology I don’t use”. Fair enough – it should be an option. Not that difficult – at one time CD-RW was standard, and DVD-RW was an option at the Apple store. How can you argue against other people who might want the technology actually having access to it, even if you don’t want it yourself?

The reality is that Apple are not being truthful. There are two reasons for the lack of blu-ray on the new laptops.

1. There are no blu-ray slot loading drives that are thin enough to fit in to Apple’s thin laptops.
2. Apple sell HD videos in their iTune store – and they don’t want competition from other sources (i.e. Blu-ray discs bought from the local store or borrowed from the local Blockbuster).

1 needs a manufacturer to help out – which I’m sure they would if Apple asked them to develop the drive. Of course, Blu-ray on the Mac Pro would not have the problem as it can take larger drives. Which leaves only reason 2 for Apple products in general.

And the fan boys pipe up again with “I can get HD videos from the Apple store. Physical media is dead”.

Right. So Apple sell 1080p videos on iTunes? With 7.1 surround sound?

No. No they don’t. They sell at best 720p, and it is compressed to the point that it would fit on a dual layer DVD. That is not full HD. That is not the quality of Blu-ray. Not even close.

If you want to connect your Apple TV, or MacBook, to your Full HD TV, you aren’t getting the full HD experience (Apple TV can’t play 1080p video anyway).

Not to mention that most ISPs around the world limit the amount of data you can download in any month, so hiring a few HD videos from Apple would actually blow the limit on their ISP in days.

But even if you forget wanting to watch movies on your machine, how about wanting to burn Blu-ray movies. The professional video creators using Apple machines want to be able to burn their HD movies to Blu-ray. Where is the solution from Apple? Aren’t Apple supposed to be the leaders in A/V?

The success of the Mac is due to the fact that Apple are the sole supplier of the hardware and operating system – so it all works together so well. The problem with the Mac is that Apple are the sole supplier of the hardware and operating system.

It all works well when Apple are ahead of the game in terms of technology. But when Apple drag their feet, you find yourself quite limited. Blu-ray is a prime example. With other manufactures adding blu-ray drive options, you’re stuck waiting for Apple to do the same. If Apple don’t want to, you can’t go buy a Sony or Dell. Well you can, but all your Mac software won’t run (easily) on it.

There was a time when Apple were the leaders, not the followers. It seems now that Apple have spread themselves too thin on the computer side of their business. When your customers feel they are not cutting edge anymore, they will start to look for alternatives. Apple runs the risk of pissing off their loyal fans and having them move away.

The Q&A sessions showed more of this attitude from Apple. Basically, Apple commented on 3 things they aren’t doing:

1. Blu-ray. “…just a bag of hurt….we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace”
2. Touch screen notebooks. “…it hasn’t made a lot of sense to us”
3. Netbooks. “… a nascent market that’s just getting started”

Probably 2 was a fair enough call – touch screen notebooks haven’t taken the world by storm, though Apple has shown with the iPhone they can do a touchscreen device better than most.

3 is more interesting. Netbooks are really taking off – I’ve known 2 friends to buy one just in the last week or two. One of them has installed OS X on his (it doesn’t all work of course). But it does give some indication that people are sick of waiting for Apple to get off its arse and move on their computer division before everyone packs up and they are left with only their iPods and iPhones.

Lead, follow or get out of the way? Which one is it Apple?

Even by my standards, the title of this article is lame. Sorry.

Anyway, Apple this week announced new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. The way I saw it, there were three major complaints:

1. Lack of firewire on the MacBooks.
2. Lack of Blu-ray drives on anything Apple makes, even as an option.
3. Glossy screens only on MacBook Pros – not even a matte screen option.

So much has already been said about 1 that I won’t bother. 2 I might write something about later. But this article is about 3.

Don’t click away just yet. I’m not going to just whinge like everyone else about glossy screens. Sure, I would prefer matte screens over glossy for laptops as I don’t like the reflections. But I don’t think the glossy screens are that bad – I have one on my iMac, and I’ve used an older MacBook with glossy screen and the reflections are generally not terrible.

This post is actually about holding up a mirror (groan) to Apple’s advertising and reflecting (groan again) on how Apple are so skilled at turning a negative in to a positive.

Now, say you wanted to sell a new laptop your company has just created. You want to show how great it is for working, watching videos, playing games. Surely you’d want to also show how clear the screen is – how it won’t distract you from your work and play because it is so bright and easy to read.

Well, that’s what I’d want to show. But maybe that is why I’m not in advertising, because apparently Apple believe the key to selling their new laptops is to show how reflections are so extreme that they get in the way of everything you do.

Case in point, this video from Apple talking about how great their new laptops are.

Let’s look at some images from this video.

We’ll start with a fairly standard marketing shot.

Ok, the reflection on that screen looks quite fake. But we can forgive Apple for this – they are showing that the screen is glossy and bright. We also have this shot:

The reflection is a little extreme here – it looks like a mirror. But the screen isn’t on, so maybe it isn’t so bad. Let’s press on.

Here we have someone actually doing some work. Editing a photo no less.

Yes, when you are editing a photo you’ve taken, you really want to have part of your image looking brighter than the rest due to a big reflection on the screen. It makes working so much easier.

But don’t forget, these machines are great for watching video (as long as it isn’t Blu-ray). Let’s take a look at these machines playing a movie, in this case Iron Man.

Is it just me, or are these reflections getting bigger and bigger now? Has someone at Apple gone mad with the post production addition of reflections to the screen?

Now, I don’t know about you – but if I’m watching a movie, I tend to get a bit angry if I get reflections on my screen. Apparently the Apple guys think this is cool though. The more reflection the better!

So, let’s take a look at how Apple advertise video games on the new glossy screens.

Whoah! Now the reflection is like half the screen. I’m not making this shit up – this is all Apple. And each new image has a larger and brighter reflection.

You’ve got to hand it to Apple advertising though. They can take a negative, play it up to an unrealistic level, and convince you that it is all positive. I’m still struggling with the lack of firewire on MacBooks as a positive. But I’m actually quite thirsty, and Steve is offering me Kool-Aid. Thanks mate.