New Imac supporting blu-ray!!!!

[SMARTZ]

I have it on very good authority that a secret deal was completed with Apple and Sony. In exchange for Bravia TV's at all of its retail stores Apple was able to secure a hugely discounted price for Blu-ray drives for its next range of Imacs which will be repositioned as computer/entertainment devices with full HD capabilities. It is unknown if the drives will be ROM or RW but the screens in all the new Imacs will feature full 1080p resolutions. Other parts of the contra deal include greater feature cross support for prof range broadcast systems, be them cameras and Apples hardware/software.

There are apparently calls for a greater working partnership between the two companies, a memorandum of understanding has been completed i hear and there will be some interesting things coming up in a future firmware update on the PS3 around October.

Now it could be some sort of itunes streaming, or ability to connect an ipod or something more far reaching since the PS3's can have operating systems installed already as part of the option on the unit.

Not sure of the overall strategy but thinking that there would be synergies of them working together on certain products such as TV's say with integrated Apple TV but then there are other products which are direct competiton such as Sony Ericssons wlakman phones and the Vaio range.

So who knows.....will be keeping my eye on the PS3 firmware blog come October!

 

[vendettabass]

sounds awesome if it turns out to be true!

 

[Queso]

I'm sceptical. This could possibly cannibalise PS3 sales. Would the extra profits from Bravia TVs offset that?

 

[AdeFowler]

I'm with dynamicv on this one. I'm not sure there's a lot of love between Sony and Apple at the moment.

 

[wyatt23]

a macrumors newbie who signed up in july. sounds like a jokster. this guy is fooling. pretty good fib tho.

 

[hvfsl]

Well considering Leopard includes the ability to play HD-DVDs and BluRay, it has to happen at some point.

 

[Cormier6083]

Apple is on the Blu-Ray alliance. But I doubt the whole Sony and Apple thing

 

[Vidd]

I have it on very good authority that a secret deal was completed with Apple and Sony. In exchange for Bravia TV's at all of its retail stores Apple was able to secure a hugely discounted price for Blu-ray drives for its next range of Imacs which will be repositioned as computer/entertainment devices with full HD capabilities.

Suuuuure.

 

[SMARTZ]

Blu-ray

Hi

I can honestly say that whilst i am a newbie i have contributed some news over the years to Appleinsider and I can assure people this will happen. The reason for the contra deal has in part to do with Sony and Apple developing a partnership for broadcast solutions as i understand it. Apple as i understand it wanted Sony to adopt firewire 800 on its high end and eventually its consumer line of camcorders. In 2004 Sony execs were present at most of the Apple shows and it was during 2004 that some sort of deal was closed reference an Apple consumer line item that required a screen. Bravia was not picked by Apple but rather Sony offered them to Apple to preview this new technology which would become Apple TV.

I don't know that much about it bar a consultant friend of mine who knows i am a Mac-head stating they are tracking this. Is there no way that someone could see if there is a shipment of Blu-ray drives going to one of the assemblers?

I doubt Apple would remain format agnostic mind.

 

[BenHoleton]

First of all, at no bigger than a 24" screen, thiis won't be a home entertainement computer, even if it had Blue Ray. And I imagine it'll be in the Mac Pro before it's in the iMac. I call shennanigans on the story.

 

[Jessy]

First of all, at no bigger than a 24" screen, thiis won't be a home entertainement computer, even if it had Blue Ray. And I imagine it'll be in the Mac Pro before it's in the iMac. I call shennanigans on the story.

The iMac kicked off the whole Apple remote deal. This could be rubbish, but not due to this flawed logic.

 

[gaelan]

Awesome…high priced components for an unproven format. Thanks but no thanks.

 

[GFLPraxis]

I'm sceptical. This could possibly cannibalise PS3 sales. Would the extra profits from Bravia TVs offset that?

Yes, since the PS3 sells for a gigantic loss I really fail to see how this would affect PS3 sales. There's tons of Blu-ray players on the market; the only reasons people would buy a PS3 over those is because:
A) It plays PS3-exclusive games
B) It's cheaper than the other Blu-ray players.

An iMac, costing $1299 minimum (Blu-ray model is probably higher) would not match any of these reasons; PS3 would still be the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

I do, however, question the intelligence of Apple if they're making Blu-ray stock. While Blu-ray is currently leading on the U.S. in sales and ESPECIALLY in rentals (which is partially attributed to the drought of PS3 games, so PS3 owners are renting a lot), HD-DVD is not dead yet and is even leading in some countries in Europe (including the UK).

If Apple exclusively chose Blu-ray, it would be a stupid move before the end of the format war. Now BTO would be different.

I don't know that much about it bar a consultant friend of mine who knows i am a Mac-head stating they are tracking this. Is there no way that someone could see if there is a shipment of Blu-ray drives going to one of the assemblers?

That wouldn't rule out Blu-ray as BTO or even Apple supporting both formats, though.

 

[macjonny1]

I have it on very good authority that a secret deal was completed with Apple and Sony. In exchange for Bravia TV's at all of its retail stores Apple was able to secure a hugely discounted price for Blu-ray drives for its next range of Imacs which will be repositioned as computer/entertainment devices with full HD capabilities. It is unknown if the drives will be ROM or RW but the screens in all the new Imacs will feature full 1080p resolutions. Other parts of the contra deal include greater feature cross support for prof range broadcast systems, be them cameras and Apples hardware/software.

Ummmm.....I hear your mom calling. She says dinners ready. Time to go home.

 

[Benedictus-x]

Yes, since the PS3 sells for a gigantic loss I really fail to see how this would affect PS3 sales. There's tons of Blu-ray players on the market; the only reasons people would buy a PS3 over those is because:
A) It plays PS3-exclusive games
B) It's cheaper than the other Blu-ray players.

An iMac, costing $1299 minimum (Blu-ray model is probably higher) would not match any of these reasons; PS3 would still be the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

I do, however, question the intelligence of Apple if they're making Blu-ray stock. While Blu-ray is currently leading on the U.S. in sales and ESPECIALLY in rentals (which is partially attributed to the drought of PS3 games, so PS3 owners are renting a lot), HD-DVD is not dead yet and is even leading in some countries in Europe (including the UK).

If Apple exclusively chose Blu-ray, it would be a stupid move before the end of the format war. Now BTO would be different.



That wouldn't rule out Blu-ray as BTO or even Apple supporting both formats, though.

apple are in the blu-ray group. they are blu-ray supporters. they included HD-DVD in leopard just to be sure though

 

[theperson]

New Imac supporting blu-ray!!!!

I know I'm being picky but it's iMac.

 

[ProstheticHead]

Personally, if I were Apple, I'd sit back and wait a while longer before I stuck either of the 'next-gen' disc drives in a new computer line. The last thing you want to do is slam a new drive in and have it turn out to be the Betamax or the Laserdisc.

Let the market fight it out, let one format win, then put it in your comp.

 

[Private Sector]

a sony alliance could potentially be very cool. with apple putting some work back into gaming on the macs again, it would be nice to see the ps3 lineup of games available on the computers too, but we'll see what happens.

 

[GFLPraxis]

apple are in the blu-ray group. they are blu-ray supporters. they included HD-DVD in leopard just to be sure though

Apple is also in the DVD Forum, the HD-DVD supporter camp. Apple is on both sides. They have yet to take any actions to support either format and they've put their names in both groups.

And frankly, there is no logical reason for Apple to take sides in the format war unless there was some kind of incentive.

 

[GFLPraxis]

a sony alliance could potentially be very cool. with apple putting some work back into gaming on the macs again, it would be nice to see the ps3 lineup of games available on the computers too, but we'll see what happens.

Sony isn't just gaming you know. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with gaming.

And you'll never see the PS3 lineup available on computers. Not only is it a nightmare to port over from Cell, but it would cannibalize PS3 sales as Sony makes the money back from PS3 losses by selling games and uses their exclusive games to keep people from buying other platforms like the 360.

 

[WizardHunt]

Personally, if I were Apple, I'd sit back and wait a while longer before I stuck either of the 'next-gen' disc drives in a new computer line. The last thing you want to do is slam a new drive in and have it turn out to be the Betamax or the Laserdisc.

Let the market fight it out, let one format win, then put it in your comp.

I Agree with you.

 

[tristan]

I don't think the source here is credible, but its an interesting idea. It would be a nice way for Sony to jumpstart adoption and for Apple to take the lead in multimedia. This deal would have to be inked, and probably leaked, about six months ago for it to be true.

 

[Toddgabweg]

I am all for an external bluray drive for the imac priced at under $200 (similar to the 360 addon HD drive)... the future is not in a physical HD format (bluray or HD dvd), but downloadable HD content... but for now I wouldn't mind the option of an external HD drive for movies I can rent at Blockbuster.... (Who still buys cds??? in a few years no one will buy movies or games on a disk)

 

[GFLPraxis]

I am all for an external bluray drive for the imac priced at under $200 (similar to the 360 addon HD drive)... the future is not in a physical HD format (bluray or HD dvd), but downloadable HD content... but for now I wouldn't mind the option of an external HD drive for movies I can rent at Blockbuster.... (Who still buys cds??? in a few years no one will buy movies or games on a disk)

You know, I hear this a lot, and it just shows how out of touch people on forums are. No offense intended to all of you guys, really, I hear stuff like this on every forum I go on but it doesn't live up to reality.

4 of the 5 biggest music retailers sell hard-copy CD's. 90% of music sales are CDs. People like having hard copies.

More importantly, movies is an entirely different matter. You can burn your music from iTunes to a CD and take it with you to a friend's house, you can't do that with a movie from iTunes. Plus, DVD's give you bonus features and the fancy case for organization (my sister buys DVDs and makes me Handbrake them because she wants the features).

And while I have broadband, everyone who lives just north of my house have no broadband available but plenty of DVD selling and rental shops.

Until broadband is available and affordable EVERYWHERE, discs are not even at risk. Once broadband is available and affordable everywhere, we can start talking, but hard-copy discs will be around for a long time to come. Mom & pop are used to buying stuff in a store and popping it in the DVD player.

Not to mention the fact that there is no HD content available online yet, other than some shows on the 360.

 

[SMARTZ]

A little dissapointed

I have to say that i am pretty dissappointed in the general attitute of people on this site to the original post i had made. I have no axe to grind and since it is generally a rumour passed on from a genuine friend i'm surprised by the rather dry response and in some cases childish jibes.

This was only my second post on the site and will most probably be my last. I was under the impression it was all Mac owners united but i guess not on this site.