Mmm … MacBook. "Wafer thiiiiiin!"

There's nothing revolutionary about removing the optical drive. Other makers do it for their lightest laptops. And as you describe: it's more practical with every passing day.

But what is interesting is what Ive and Co. can come up with now the slot is gone. Bring me MacBook!

I really doubt that Apple would do that. Nobody want's the hassle of finding a external DVD drive every time they want to use a DVD. Which is becoming more frequent now that the CD seems to be going the way of the Dinosaurs.

I can see dropping an optical drive if this is the "fabled" slim MBP. The MB sells to college students, lots of whom don't have TVs or DVD players and use their laptops as all around media players. A slim MBP, OTOH, would sell to professionals and technology enthusiasts who would have other means of watching that Heroes DVD collection.

This move would encourage a lot of people to rip DVDs as nobody wants to carry an external drive with them on a trip and definitely don't want to be fiddling with the drive while cramped in the already too small airplane seats.

Optical drive usage has definitely declined and with Apple doing movie downloads, their business model encourages DVD usage even less.

Will be interesting to see what they do, but as was already mentioned, MacBooks are extremely popular with the college crowd who use their computer as an all-in one device for entertainment.

If they do that it's not a MacBook, it's the rumored sub-notebook. Might call it MacBook-mini or some such silliness but it still won't replace the MacBook, as they won't drop the SuperDrive on the "consumer" -- read, good enough for about everyone for all purposes -- laptop. Me, one of the reasons I bought an MB instead of a Pro-line model this time, besides the lovely keyboard, the mag latch and the like $1,300 lower price for similar performance, was no aluminum, no dents. i don't want an aluminum MacBook.

Many benefits to removing the DVD;
1. lighter, smaller foot print
2. easier (though more $) to upgrade to bluray etc (external DVD); not permanently stuck with outdated internal drive; you think we are going to still be using their 8x superdrive 3 yrs from now?
3. I agree most people don't use their DVD as much; though apple would still need to include an external drive
4. I'm sure most people know about DVD rippers such as MacTheRippper, which allow you to rip DVDs to the hard drive
5. Easier service issues if DVD drive breaks (apple service: "we'll just mail you a new one")
6. Despite this, I'm sure the new MB will have a DVD; the ultralight macbook pro however seems likely not to have a DVD

the part that i use less of my macbook or macbook pro is really the CD/DVD-ROM.. is use it for nothing.. just maibe play a DVD once a month! but for that i can use also a DVD-usb.

Also when i install new software i prefer install it from network storage disk ..

the truth is that DVD-ROM is deprecated!

I use my MB's drive about once a month to rip a CD; then if just lays. but then again, i don't know what I'd do if i couldn't rip the cd...

i doubt that apple will in the forseeable come out with a sub-notebook or a tablet for that matter.
Reason:

-no dvd drive means that it only caters to the business crowd, which apple has never done in the second coming of steve jobs. the most recent example of this would be the iphone. it would only be good product to a serviceable few and would quickly become a niche product with limited profit potential. an aluminum macbook w/ dvd would not only attract the business segment, but also college students and general use computer users who want something thin and light to carry around.
the biggest tip off to all of this was the ipod classic. as soon as they moved to aluminum and disregarded the white for silver told where apple was going in terms of the macbook. apple is clearly moving all of their main products to aluminum as evidenced by the greener apple statements by jobs. battery life can also still be improved with a move to the led screens which jobs had also talked about. there will be a move to a no optical drive to a mac some day, but flash drives are still too expensive and too many people are still dependent on CD/DVD to exchange information.
if you combine all of this and the fact that a new macbook is due at exactly the time that the holiday season starts, all of this is pointing to a new macbook.

I use my MacBook as a desktop. It's connected to a cinema display. Very rarely do I find the need for the internal optical drive. Software is almost always installed from a download. Backups are done to a firewire hdd. Even still, when I burn a DVD I almost always use my external burner because it's faster. File transfers from machines not on my home network are usually done using a 2G thumb drive. Files between home and work are moved through my iDIsk. If I was to take the laptop on the go, the last thing I'd probably use is the DVD drive.

Living without a built in optical drive is easy to do.

If I was to buy the new upcoming thin-book, I wouldn't miss the optcal drive if it was to go. If you had to reinstall the OS, something you need a the DVDs for, you could either use another machine in target disk mode, or connect an external DVD drive. I've seen some pretty small, thin USB burners for sale that are desinged to fit nicely in a laptop case. Sony has a pretty small one.

I use my MacBook as a desktop. It's connected to a cinema display. Very rarely do I find the need for the internal optical drive. Software is almost always installed from a download. Backups are done to a firewire hdd. Even still, when I burn a DVD I almost always use my external burner because it's faster. File transfers from machines not on my home network are usually done using a 2G thumb drive. Files between home and work are moved through my iDIsk. If I was to take the laptop on the go, the last thing I'd probably use is the DVD drive.

Living without a built in optical drive is easy to do.

If I was to buy the new upcoming thin-book, I wouldn't miss the optcal drive if it was to go. If you had to reinstall the OS, something you need a the DVDs for, you could either use another machine in target disk mode, or connect an external DVD drive. I've seen some pretty small, thin USB burners for sale that are desinged to fit nicely in a laptop case. Sony has a pretty small one.

I'm a full time graduate student who is nearing the end of my degree in a tech-based field (read => downloading betas & trial apps and testing the heck out of them to see if they meet certain needs, designing and developing media-intensive presentations and applications, and just generally being really hard on my computer). In other words a MacBook wouldn't hold up to my daily demands.

I use my MacBook Pro for all of the work above, as well as most of my digital entertainment needs including watching dvds (netflix, so ripping isn't exactly an option) and playing games which require a dvd in the drive. These activities won't change drastically when I'm out in the real world. At present, my computer is provided as part of a school sponsored assistantship. In the next few months, I will be transitioning to the 'real world' and buying my own. I am really looking forward to the new slim MBP, but it won't fly for my overall needs without a dvd drive.

We think if Apple wants to compete in this portable PC market, that this is a no brainer. Although, it may be an entirely new line, "Macbook Mini" or "Macbook Nano":

Sorry, gotta disagree with most of you. We absolutely need to have an optical drive for business. We use laptops on the road for trade shows etc, and 95% of suppliers still give us product catalogs on CDs or occasionally DVDs. Packing an external drive and fumbling with more connections is exactly what we try to eliminate. At the office and external is okay, but for our business travel it's a show stopper: Optical drives are a must.

this was my 1st guess when i heard about the slim macbook micro...