Ford Dumping CD Player

[robertlane]

I just looked at my little lime green Fiesta to see if there's a CD player.......and there is. I never even thought to look at it so I won't miss it.

[robertlane]

Is there a thread on this website that ever stays on topic? I haven't found it yet.

OK - straying slightly off topic here too - I have never used the optical drive in my Mac Book either. They can rip it out to save some weight in the next revision.

[suv_guy_19]

OK - straying slightly off topic here too - I have never used the optical drive in my Mac Book either. They can rip it out to save some weight in the next revision.

 

They've taken it out of the Mac Mini, and they've eliminated the MacBook altogether. I''m not sure if the MacBook Pro will lose the optical drive next year.

[RichardJensen]

They still put stuff on things? I thought everything was in the cloud. You know, up in the sky or something.

[Noah Harbinger]

They still put stuff on things? I thought everything was in the cloud. You know, up in the sky or something.

 

To quote John Siracusa, "Apple is so done with stamping bits onto plastic discs, putting the discs into cardboard boxes, putting those boxes onto trucks, planes, and boats, and shipping them all over the world to retail stores or to mail-order resellers who will eventually put those same boxes onto a different set of trucks, trains, and planes for final delivery to customers, who will then remove the disc, throw away the cardboard, and instruct their computers to extract the bits. No, from here on out, it's digital distribution all the way."

[RichardJensen]

That reminds me of this Second Life screen cap, which perfectly illustrates the limits of digital distribution:

 

[RichardJensen]

Apple is still very much in the business of selling numerous other things that require planes, trucks, resellers, stores, warehouses, etc.......

[Noah Harbinger]

And they even still sell some software in boxes. But a program isn't a soda, and there's no fundamental requirement for you to buy a digital product on a physical medium.

[TomServo92]

And they even still sell some software in boxes. But a program isn't a soda, and there's no fundamental requirement for you to buy a digital product on a physical medium.

 

Absolutely correct.

 

Back on topic: One thing I'm looking forward to when we replace the Lincoln LS is that I want a car with Sync. The LS doesn't even have an auxiliary audio jack for my iPod. The CD player never gets used in it because my CDs are packed away plus I have bought quite a bit of my current music online.

[RichardJensen]

And they even still sell some software in boxes. But a program isn't a soda, and there's no fundamental requirement for you to buy a digital product on a physical medium.

No--until your hard drive takes a dump and you have no backup media.

 

Apple doesn't pass the savings of digital delivery on to you, the customer, and you, the customer, are somewhat inconvenienced if you make a physical backup of the software, so it's really just a net savings for Apple (or Adobe or IBM or whoever).

 

In the end, it's yet another instance of "over promise, under deliver" by the tech industry---------which at this point in time rivals DC & Hollywood when it comes to underwhelming and unnecessary work output.

[CKNSLS]

You don't have to convert anything - just put the cds in and import them in mp3 format then copy them to a usb drive and plug it in. It also gives you backups of your cds and you only have to do it once per cd. It's really not as hard as you're making it out to be.

 

It's not hard - just very time consuming. Sitting there feeding CDs in to your computer and then ripping them. The deletion of the CD player is cost cutting and not a benefit to consumers. It must have saved Ford .25cents per radio......

Edited August 7, 2011 by CKNSLS

[RichardJensen]

You think a CD player's cost is $.25? Right.

[CKNSLS]

You think a CD player's cost is $.25? Right.

 

If my humor is too dry I'm sorry. I can only guess that being a CD player there are moving parts (the "feed in" feature for one that grabs the CD) so the cost is more. I do not think the USB uses any moving parts (just software) so it's less cost. It is still cost cutting, whatever the amount.

 

I wonder how many people will even notice the lack of a player during the test drive?

[TomServo92]

If my humor is too dry I'm sorry. I can only guess that being a CD player there are moving parts (the "feed in" feature for one that grabs the CD) so the cost is more. I do not think the USB uses any moving parts (just software) so it's less cost. It is still cost cutting, whatever the amount.

 

I wonder how many people will even notice the lack of a player during the test drive?

 

It's not cost cutting. It's the future. CDs will go the way of cassettes and 8-tracks. Ford is just the first one to make the move to eliminate them.

[joehio]

If my humor is too dry I'm sorry. I can only guess that being a CD player there are moving parts (the "feed in" feature for one that grabs the CD) so the cost is more. I do not think the USB uses any moving parts (just software) so it's less cost. It is still cost cutting, whatever the amount.

 

I wonder how many people will even notice the lack of a player during the test drive?

 

I know that I've noticed. The wife's MKS has hard drive, love downloading cd's (about 10 min per cd), can easily delete. Don't haver to burn to a stick or whatever device, wish it was an option. If I go for a '12 MKS, I'll be arounf the $51k mark, wish I had options, but I guess not.

[CKNSLS]

It's not cost cutting. It's the future. CDs will go the way of cassettes and 8-tracks. Ford is just the first one to make the move to eliminate them.

 

CDs will go away. But not next year, or the next 5 years. You can still go on Crutchfield and buy cassette radios. But putting in my own CD player after spending a better part of 20 grand is something I feel I shouldn't do. Now if I wanted a cassette player, I would expect to go aftermarket.

 

It's too early - it's cost cutting..

[Noah Harbinger]

I'm torn. Smart phone penetrance is, what, 30-35%, portable media players add another 20% or so, and frankly I think once the rest realize they can fit their entire music collection on a $20 thumb drive (and at the same time eliminate the risk of losing hundreds of dollars in CDs if their car gets broken into), nobody will ever care about a CD player. I haven't used mine since I got an iTouch 2.5 years ago.

 

But new car buyers skew older than the population in general. They're the ones who have just barely figured out how this CD thing works - I can't imagine trying to help them put files on a thumb drive. While it would be the right time for the population in general, it's probably too soon for those of car-buying age.

[CKNSLS]

I'm torn. Smart phone penetrance is, what, 30-35%, portable media players add another 20% or so, and frankly I think once the rest realize they can fit their entire music collection on a $20 thumb drive (and at the same time eliminate the risk of losing hundreds of dollars in CDs if their car gets broken into), nobody will ever care about a CD player. I haven't used mine since I got an iTouch 2.5 years ago.

 

But new car buyers skew older than the population in general. They're the ones who have just barely figured out how this CD thing works - I can't imagine trying to help them put files on a thumb drive. While it would be the right time for the population in general, it's probably too soon for those of car-buying age.

 

Many cellphone companies are doing away with "all you can eat" internet. So using phones via 3G or 4G or whatever G will be very costly to listen to music on. So - it still takes countless hours to covert Cds in to something that goes on a thumb drive. You can lock several hours of digital music CDs in the glovebox.

 

When someone tells me they will spend countless hours (for free) in front of my computer coverting my Cds then I won't care that it doesn't have a player.

 

It's takes too much time to rip them and put them on a thumb drive.

[TomServo92]

CDs will go away. But not next year, or the next 5 years. You can still go on Crutchfield and buy cassette radios. But putting in my own CD player after spending a better part of 20 grand is something I feel I shouldn't do. Now if I wanted a cassette player, I would expect to go aftermarket.

 

It's too early - it's cost cutting..

 

You're wrong. CDs are already going away.

[Noah Harbinger]

Many cellphone companies are doing away with "all you can eat" internet. So using phones via 3G or 4G or whatever G will be very costly to listen to music on.

 

Hopefully they will find that they're simultaneously doing away with their best customers, and reverse those policies. American telecom companies are just too damn averse to investing money in their infrastructure.

 

So - it still takes countless hours to covert Cds in to something that goes on a thumb drive. You can lock several hours of digital music CDs in the glovebox.

 

When someone tells me they will spend countless hours (for free) in front of my computer coverting my Cds then I won't care that it doesn't have a player.

 

It's takes too much time to rip them and put them on a thumb drive.

 

Step 1: Put CD in drive

Step 2: There is no step 2!

 

The amount of time you save by not having to shuffle your CDs around in your car will be paid off almost instantaneously, once you've gone digital.

 

(Unless you're an old person who has trouble with computers, in which case, I can sympathize with your plight.)

Edited August 8, 2011 by Noah Harbinger

[akirby]

Hopefully they will find that they're simultaneously doing away with their best customers, and reverse those policies. American telecom companies are just too damn averse to investing money in their infrastructure.

 

The problem is it was costing far more to keep the unlimited data users than they were paying. They're already investing billions in upgrades. The extra cost to support a few unlimited users is significant and causes the price for everyone else to be higher because of the higher infrastructure costs. The other problem is that unlimited users "waste" a lot of bandwidth streaming or downloading unnecessarily - sort of like getting too much food off the all-you-can-eat buffet just because it's free.

 

If your "best" customers cost you money then you're better off without them. We're only talking about less than 2% of customers. The other 98% use 2 gb or less per month and their cost actually went DOWN when AT&T made the switch ($30 unlimited to $25 for 2 gb).

[silvrsvt]

Many cellphone companies are doing away with "all you can eat" internet. So using phones via 3G or 4G or whatever G will be very costly to listen to music on. So - it still takes countless hours to covert Cds in to something that goes on a thumb drive. You can lock several hours of digital music CDs in the glovebox.

 

When someone tells me they will spend countless hours (for free) in front of my computer coverting my Cds then I won't care that it doesn't have a player.

 

It's takes too much time to rip them and put them on a thumb drive.

 

Let me ask you this....how many CD's do you have? If you have that many CD's, your sure as hell not going to be able to play them all or even want to keep them in a car to be able to play them.

 

Typically, ripping a Music CD takes 5-10 minutes to do via iTunes or Windows Media Player...I'm not sure if your aware of this, but nearly 99% of all computers can Multitask (I know most people can't multitaks) but you can put in a CD, rip it to your hard drive all while your posting to this place...and not wasting your "precious" time your complaining about here.

 

Once you get all your CD's ripped....it opens up a whole new world. You can transfer it to your Smart Phone (USB stick,etc,etc) and play it through the Sync system and it only takes 5-10 minutes to move your WHOLE Collection of Music (My collection of Music is about 6-8 GB of data) to device of your choice...you can even back it up to an external drive or even the "cloud" so that you never lose it.

 

Not to mention in my case, I buy all my music digitally though Amazon or Apple, so I don't have to worry about ripping anymore, and I'm lucky to buy a whole Album these days anyways...I get the songs I like and thats it.

[2005Explorer]

The problem is it was costing far more to keep the unlimited data users than they were paying. They're already investing billions in upgrades. The extra cost to support a few unlimited users is significant and causes the price for everyone else to be higher because of the higher infrastructure costs. The other problem is that unlimited users "waste" a lot of bandwidth streaming or downloading unnecessarily - sort of like getting too much food off the all-you-can-eat buffet just because it's free.

 

If your "best" customers cost you money then you're better off without them. We're only talking about less than 2% of customers. The other 98% use 2 gb or less per month and their cost actually went DOWN when AT&T made the switch ($30 unlimited to $25 for 2 gb).

 

It didn't become a better deal for Verizon customers, however I am grandfathered into unlimited for the time being. So basically either go with AT&T and have to deal with their garbage network (at least where I live) or pay more for Verizon. If you look at the financial reports of Verizon or AT&T neither company is hurting. AT&T is in the process of buying T-Mobile and you can bet the minute the purchase is approved Verizon will go after Sprint. For the most part they already are a duopoly. They know they have the market and are going to "stick it to you" whenever and wherever possible.

 

As far as the CD player goes? I haven't bought a CD since around 2002. Music downloads and MP3 players are the standard today and into the future. I'm glad to see Ford being bold and removing this useless feature. Apple was ridiculed for being the first to remove the 3.5" floppy from their computers and look how right they were. I like my Blu-ray player and burn a DVD every now and then, but I know that removable disk media is dying a slow death. In 5-10 years everything will be digital files and if removable media is needed it will be flash based.

Edited August 8, 2011 by 2005Explorer

[silvrsvt]

Apple was ridiculed for being the first to remove the 3.5" floppy from their computers and look how right they were.

 

Eh Floppies where on their way out with PC's around the same time...ZIP disks where becoming more popular at that time then DVD drives replaced them.

 

Only reason they stuck around for so long was to flash BIOS's on motherboards

[akirby]

It didn't become a better deal for Verizon customers, however I am grandfathered into unlimited for the time being. So basically either go with AT&T and have to deal with their garbage network (at least where I live) or pay more for Verizon. If you look at the financial reports of Verizon or AT&T neither company is hurting. AT&T is in the process of buying T-Mobile and you can bet the minute the purchase is approved Verizon will go after Sprint. For the most part they already are a duopoly. They know they have the market and are going to "stick it to you" whenever and wherever possible.

 

Regardless of what they're charging today, they'll have to charge more to support unlimited data users so your bill goes up.

 

There is plenty of competition in most cities. It's not cost efficient to have so many companies putting up their own infrastructure in each city. Same reason you typically only have one cable provider in a location. The key is to have just enough for healthy competition.