Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Am I the only Apple customer annoyed and insulted by Apple's decision (amongst other things) not to include a CD / DVD drive on the new iMac? It is a desktop computer. What does it matter if it is thinner than the previous iMac? Who cares if it's "5mm thin"? It is a classic example of form over function. So long as it is thinner than the stand it sits on it makes no practical difference if it is thinner than before. What does make a differrence however is how it works, what jobs it is capable of doing and how easy it is for those jobs to be done. Without a CD / DVD drive a number of jobs / tasks are no longer possible on this machine. It's obvious but... You can no longer import your CDs into itunes. You can't install your software CDs or DVDs onto the computer. You can't watch DVDs on it. You can't burn CDs or DVDs for playlists, back ups of data / photos / home movies etc What I find insulting is that Apple use the excuse of disregarding the DVD/CD drive in an attempt to make the iMac (pointlessly) thin. This isn't the real reason. Surely the real reason is so that you can no longer import CDs and DVDs, so as a result people will be forced to buy all their music and movies etc through iTunes, and software through the app store. It is simply a money making exercise. Apple are deliberatley inconveniencing their customers in an attempt to force them to spend more of their money through iTunes rather than buy the cheaper, better quality and often preferable CDs and DVDs. What is more insulting (and deliberately rude) is Phil Shiller's remark that people wanting the option to have a CD / DVD drive on their iMac are "stuck in the past". I'm not stuck in the past. I'm a professional photographer whose clients often require images on DVDs. The clients are not stuck in the past either. They are at the cutting edge of fashion, design and advertising. To say DVDs and CDs are out of date technology is simply untrue. Whilst it may be the case for some, for the vast majority of the Earth's population they are very current technology. 75% of all music and movies are still bought on CD and DVD. Apple might not like that, but it's true. Most people also have collections of music and movies that they would like to be able to import onto their new iMac. Apple used to be about building machines that suited the needs of creative professionals. It seems these days are over. Apple now thinks it is acceptable to insult these customers by pretending that it is more important to have a "5mm thin" computer (at the edges only) than have a CD/ DVD reader / writer. But this is far from the only appalling design decision Apple made regarding this iMac. They also chose to have all the USB and Thunderbolt ports out of reach on the back of the machine. They have abandoned their firewire support completely, leaving everyone with firewire connected external hard drives etc in a situation where they have to buy ridiculously overpriced adaptors in order to use them on these machines. They also located the DS card slot along side the USB ports on the back of the iMac (the most inconvenient and annoying place possible on the iMac). Along with the speaker, now facing backwards and away from the computer's user making the sound terrible. How can that possibly be a good idea? My gripe isn't about money or the cost of an external drive. I know I can buy an external DVD drive, and I have, but not an Apple one, a Samsung blu-ray writer. But what is the point of having a thin computer when you then have to have a drive sitting next to it using up a USB port? Apple should not be allowed to get away with these underhand and insulting tactics and remarks. I've been a loyal Apple customer for twenty years and have a huge amount of Apple computers, ipads, iphones etc. But I'm unhappy with their new direction. Apple succeeded in becoming as big as they are today because customers like me bought their machines because we wanted something better to use for our work than the technology provided by the PC market. A good looking machine is fine, but not when it comes at the price of practicality and functionality. It's time they stop treating their customers this way and give us what we want and need, and not just what they want us to have. This isn't the Apple that Steve Jobs created, and some people need to realise that this company isn't infallible, and is losing it's direction and it's integrity. If they don't want to continue to lose the support of a growing number of disgruntled customers Apple need to have a word with themselves.