Phil Schiller Says the MacBook Pro Doesn't Need an SD Card Slot (theverge.com)

Apple's new MacBook Pro models have upset many people for many different reasons. Some are unhappy with the inability to get more than 16GB of RAM, some are upset with the high-price, some are unhappy about the missing physical Escape and function keys, and many are unhappy because Apple didn't put an SD card slot in the MacBook Pro. But Apple has an explanation. From a report on The Verge: Speaking to The Independent (paywalled), Apple exec Phil Schiller said the company had dropped the SD card slot as it was "cumbersome" and because wireless transfer technology for cameras is "proving very useful" as an alternative. Schiller said, "Because of a couple of things. One, it's a bit of a cumbersome slot. You've got this thing sticking halfway out. Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers, and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD. So we could never really resolve this -- we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD but you can only pick one. So, that was a bit of a trade-off. And then more and more cameras are starting to build wireless transfer into the camera. That's proving very useful. So we think there's a path forward where you can use a physical adaptor if you want, or do wireless transfer."

Comments

They want to sell over priced Accessories

[Joe_Dragon]

http://www.apple.com/shop/prod...
$49.95

Re: Phill Schill

[jittles]

On my 7 year old macbook pro, I think I used the SD card slot maybe 2 or 3 times total. Same goes for the ethernet jack. If your'e going to use it so infrequently, doesn't seem like a disaster to expect an adapter.

Perhaps, but his arguments are asinine regardless. Card half sticking out? Hmmm i seem to have several cameras where the SD Card slot is spring loaded and has absolutely nothing sticking out of it. Wireless is satisfactory? Sure - lets just sit there for hours while I transfer 30GB of pictures from my last vacation. Sounds like a great time for everyone.

Re:Fuck You, that's why.

[dgatwood]

Actually, the better answer is that they weren't willing to update the SD card reader to something modern. Newer UHS-II SD card readers are much faster than the ancient UHS-I reader that they included, and somebody probably calculated that upgrading to UHS-II would require replacing their USB-2 hub with a USB-3 hub in addition to upgrading the SD card reader, and they decided that it wasn't worth it.

As someone who uses the SD card slot on a regular basis, I disagree with them, and this is definitely making me question Apple's commitment to photography professionals, particularly given what they did to Aperture.