MacRumors reports on an email exchange that took place between Steve Jobs and one of their readers regarding the possibility of Blu-ray coming to the Mac, and the prospects aren"t pretty. Blu-ray drives and playback software have been available on the PC side for years, but with the closed nature of the Mac platform, it won"t be available under OS X until Apple wants it to be.
In the recent email exchange, Macrumors reader Siva questioned Steve Jobs on the absence of a Blu-ray drive in the recent Mac mini update, to which Jobs replied, "Bluray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD - like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats." This shouldn"t come as too much of surprise considering that Jobs has been quoted calling Blu-ray a "bag of hurt."
Siva then replied arguing the short-term benefits of the format, including storage density and high video quality. Steve replied with another strong endorsement for downloadable formats touting the "instant gratification and convenience" of services such as Hulu and iTunes rentals. He also mentions that 720p and higher as being "sufficient quality to win almost everyone over."
Regardless of Steve"s personal thoughts on the future of content delivery, licensing fees are likely to be a key deterrent for Blu-ray"s inclusion as well. Support for native Blu-ray playback would cause Apple to incur expensive licensing fees, whereas on the PC side, Microsoft is happy to let 3rd parties deliver the required software.