If you've shopped for a laptop within the past few years, you probably noticed a severe lack of laptops with built-in CD/DVD drives. That's all thanks to declining physical media use and a growing desire for thin, lightweight laptops.
While Apple's last laptop with a built-in drive was the mid-2012 MacBook Pro (non-Retina Display), it has continued to ship a product for MacBook owners who still need a CD/DVD drive: the Apple SuperDrive.
However, when you head to Apple's site to buy a new SuperDrive, it's listed as "Sold Out," and there's no mention of a restock date, which is why the widely accepted thought is that it's discontinued. We've reached out to Apple for an official comment but haven't heard back at the time of publication.
Many people don't miss having a CD/DVD drive in their laptops (or even desktops), but a surprisingly high number of people express interest in external CD/DVD drives for rescue boot discs, physical media collections, or other reasons. With Apple's SuperDrive off the market, there won't be a minimalistic, anodized aluminum option to match MacBooks.
Apple USB SuperDrive: Old enough to drive
Alongside the first MacBook Air, the Apple USB SuperDrive launched in early 2008 — for those of us who feel like that was yesterday, that was 16 years ago. Apple's SuperDrive has just reached driving age, and nothing has changed since its debut.
It's certainly not a surprising move, but it does mark the end of an era, and it brings up nostalgic feelings of physical media: burning CDs for friends, adding a newly purchased CD to iTunes, picking out DVDs for a long road trip.
There was nothing particularly snazzy about Apple's SuperDrive. It just looked sleek and screamed, "I was made by Apple," with its anodized aluminum body and curved corners. It's also quite thin (only 0.67 inches high) and offers easy plug-and-play use.
While Apple could've released an improved SuperDrive with updated specs, the demand likely just wasn't there.
Where can you still buy the Apple SuperDrive?
If you have a MacBook and you've been thinking about getting the official Apple SuperDrive for your CDs and DVDs, you still have a chance to grab a new one. It's "sold out" on the Apple website, but you can buy the SuperDrive via Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H.
Once the Apple SuperDrive is sold out across retailers, you'd likely only be able to get it used from eBay, Mercari, or another consumer-to-consumer marketplace. Or, if you don't mind something that doesn't quite match the Apple aesthetic, you could opt for one of the best external DVD drives we've found and grab a newer model with faster read and write speeds.
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