AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Blu-ray Blues: With the HD War Over, Why Aren’t We Seeing Blu-ray Drives in Apple Computers? - I, Cringely

Now that HD DVD is dead and Sony’s Blu-ray has apparently won the HD media war, why aren’t we seeing Blu-ray drives available as a factory option, at least, for Macintosh computers? I think Steve Jobs is deliberately holding back in a high-stakes gamble for control of HD video distribution.

Apple has been a member of the Blu-ray camp practically since its inception. And remember 2005 — Apple’s “Year of HD,” when the company declared allegiance at MacWorld in the company of Sony’s chairman. So where are the drives, and what does Apple have to lose by providing them or not?

There’s a tiny chicken-and-egg problem here in that Apple’s professional applications don’t yet support Blu-ray. Maybe they’ll use that as an excuse, if a lame one. Clearly Apple has had plenty of time to make it possible to burn Blu-ray discs. As the dominant hardware and software vendor to the movie industry — an industry EAGER to jump to Blu-ray — it would appear to be in Apple’s interest to be shipping those Blu-ray drives right now. So the fact that they aren’t shipping has to be a conscious decision at Apple where, as we know, most big decisions — conscious or not — are made by Steve Jobs.

Before we attempt to calculate what’s at risk here for Apple, let’s think about what the company has to gain — or what they might THINK they have to gain – by delaying. Apple clearly sees a huge part of its future in content distribution including TV shows and movies. I can only guess that Jobs sees Blu-ray as a threat to that download business and this decision to delay Blu-ray deployment is an expensive stalling action, buying time for Apple to launch its own true HD alternative.

More