Following Monday's announcements from San Francisco regarding refreshed MacBook Pros, it will be a wonder if Apple doesn't run off the rest of it's dedicated professional video audience. With Final Cut X's big flop in the pro-video world last year, it would seem that Apple decided that they really don't care about appealing to anyone but consumers and themselves anymore. The decision to eliminate the optical drive in their high-end portable computer is another slap in the face of all those that helped Apple displace Avid as the number one video editing software among smaller studios and individual producers. Let's look at what Apple has accomplished by making this choice.
SAVED WEIGHT
The MBP now weighs in at a little over 4.5 pounds. I am the first to admit that my 2010 MBP is a hefty piece of machinery. Since I use it primarily for stationary editing with a Cinema Display, that's not much of an issue to me. If I wanted a super-light, ultra-portable, I would buy a tablet or ultrabook like a Samsung Series 9 PC.
SAVED THICKNESS
At .71 inches, the new MacBook Pro is no-doubt a thin machine. I'm not accustomed to squeezing through narrow passages whilst holding my laptop, but if I was running for my life and had to squeeze through a narrow fence, this extra .25 inch could possibly make all the difference. Thin is nice, but it is not a deal breaker for me.
SAVED BATTERY
Of course an optical drive with moving parts will eat more battery life than no drive at all, so the unplugged time of the new laptops should be exceptionally better. I don't find myself using my optical drive much when I'm away from a desk, so I'm not sure how much practical gain there is to this.
Apple still threw a bone to the pros that haven't already jumped ship on Final Cut by announcing that all of the pro apps will be made retina-ready to look their best on the new hi-res screens. They have still made life harder to be a video producer that uses Macs by now forcing you to buy an external optical drive if you choose to upgrade. I'm sure many pros out there have already done so just so they are able to author Blu-ray disks.
Even the big Mac Pros were barely given so much as a spec bump today. It's probably only a matter of one to two years before they follow the optical drive into the annals of Apple history. Let's hope that Mr. Cook and Mr. Ive will look beyond the kids buying iPods and iPads and see that there is still a huge customer base that needs professional software and hardware in order to do their job. If they don't, then companies like Adobe will be all too ready to eat their lunch.
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