After first going out of stock in the U.S. and later in every country in the world, people (and MacRumors) are beginning to assume the 16-year-old Apple SuperDrive isn’t coming back. The company hasn’t said anything about it officially, but many of its current customers probably don’t know or remember that it exists or is still sold.
When the first MacBook Air launched in 2008, its big selling point was the same as it is now — it’s superthin and light. Getting the size down to fit in a Manila envelope meant removing lots of ports, and that included the disc drive. It felt like a pretty bold move at the time. After all, how would you download software? Or what if you needed to burn a mix CD for your high school crush?
Well, to give people the option to still play CDs and DVDs on their Macs, Apple released a stand-alone disc drive called the SuperDrive. It uses a USB-A connector, which was fine at the time of release, but if you wanted to use one now, you’d have to buy a USB-C to USB-A adapter as well. It’s also too old to be compatible with Blu-ray discs, so it really is quite out of date.
Of course, USB ports aren’t the only thing that has changed over the past 16 years. Physical media like DVDs have become a bit of a niche in the age of streaming and digital downloads. This transition is likely why Apple never upgraded the SuperDrive to USB-C, and ultimately why it’s now disappeared from the Apple Store now.
So, let’s pour one out for the SuperDrive, a unique solution to an innovation that took us one step closer to where we are today.
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