The end of the CD drive on laptops

Wednesday, Apple is holding an event called "Back to the Mac". People expect an announcement around a new version of the Mac operating system. Not hard to believe it is going to be called Lion, looking at the picture in the invitation card...

I am expecting Apple to also announce a new laptop. One that looks like my MacBook Air, with solid state disk and no CD drive.

I believe this moment will mark the end of the CD/DVD drive era on laptops. All Mac laptops, from now on, will look like the Air (which is a fantastic device, just a bit too pricey and slow, all things that are easy to solve today).

I have been living with a laptop without a CD drive for five years, at least. Starting with a Compaq Evo, then migrating to the MBA (as they call the Air). In all this time, I had two instances where I needed a CD drive... In both cases, someone around me had a CD drive and shared it for me on the network. The gain in weight is significant, and it means more room for battery (which is something you use a bit more often).

Apple has killed the floppy disk before, now it is time for the CD. You can put all that in an USB stick (yes, the new laptop will have more than one USB port). And if you really really need a CD/DVD drive for that emergency, you can get a USB one (but it is probably not going to pay for itself).

The world is moving to the cloud. Get ready for it. Shed some weight.