Still more evidence that we at AtAT are hopelessly out of touch with the rest of the world: we really didn't expect any serious opposition to Apple's choice to replace the DVD-ROM drive in the higher-end iMacs with a CD-RW drive instead. The way we saw it, there were only two uses for the DVD-ROM drive: playing DVD movies and accessing DVD-ROM-based software titles, and neither seems all that compelling. We assume that the vast majority of people with DVD movies already own consumer DVD players hooked up to actual TVs, and would rather watch them there than on a 15-inch computer screen. And DVD-ROM software distribution really hasn't caught on the way that Apple expected-- sure, there are a few reference titles and clip-art collections that come on DVD-ROM, but for the average consumer, we figured the ability to back up data and make music CDs without additional third-party hardware was much more important than being able to watch A Bug's Life in the den instead of in the living room.

Apparently, though, a sampling of the Japanese Mac-using population doesn't agree with us; a ZDNet article indicates that at least some Expo-goers were a mite upset with Apple for waving the DVD-ROM carrot-on-a-stick and then yanking it away again; "most attendees polled by ZDNet News said DVD is still more useful to them." One such gentleman predicted that "the general public will not accept this machine." Of course, his argument sort of breaks down at that point, since he goes on to talk about watching DVDs on the train on his PowerBook, and we doubt many people were planning to lug an iMac on the subway with a really long extension cord just to watch Pulp Fiction on the way to work. Still, that's the general sort of attitude we're picking up on; people want their DVD-ROM drives. The main concern seems to be that since external third-party CD-RW drives are cheap and plentiful, but DVD-ROM drives are not, Apple should be shipping the rarer option as a built-in component.

Here's what we would have preferred: high-end iMacs shipping standard with CD-RW, just like now, but with a no-cost DVD-ROM drive swapout build-to-order option at the Apple Store for customers who already own external CD burners. If Apple can do this for the Power Mac G4 (and it has), surely it wouldn't be too tough to rig it for the iMac, too. Even better, of couse, would have been DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drives for the best of both worlds, but we're betting that Apple ditched that plan because slot-loading combo drives aren't available yet. One thing's clear, though-- while we think Apple made the right choice in the iMac, we hope that the PowerBook and iBook stick with DVD-ROM in some fashion. While watching movies on a 15-inch screen at home isn't the most thrilling thing in the world, watching them on an LCD at 30,000 feet is decidedly très cool.