Apple SuperDrive finally sells out 16 years later

The 2008 MacBook Air didn't have an optical drive, so Apple sold a separate SuperDrive accessory, which has finally seemingly been discontinued from sale.

Visit Apple's website, and you'll see the SuperDrive is sold out. That may signify that the ancient device has finally been pulled from sale.

Apple has never been shy when ditching ports, peripherals, or drives in favor of more modern standards or thinner devices. The MacBook Air is one of the more significant examples, being among the first consumer laptops sold without a disk drive.

Apple's solution was one it has gone to many times over the years — sell it as a dongle. The USB SuperDrive started life as a $99 accessory to the MacBook Air.

The device has remained available and in the Apple Store for the 16 years since its introduction. The price dropped slightly to $79, and no updates were ever made to the product.

Despite Blu-ray being a thing since 2006, Apple didn't support the format with SuperDrive. It also used a USB-A connector, meaning users needed an adapter to use it with modern Macs. And, power provided by that port is a consideration, so most hubs and docks can't drive it.

Technology around optical drives got cheaper and more widely available, so it is safe to say the SuperDrive outlived most of its usefulness more than a decade ago. Users have been able to get much more powerful external drives with USB-C for years and at a much lower price.

The product has sold out on Apple's website, but it is still available elsewhere while supplies last. It can be purchased from Amazon for $77.99.

25 Comments

Edgecrusherr 27 comments · 2 Years

About 4 months ago

I just saw three of these at Best Buy on Saturday, and had a good laugh about it. They’re not even properly compatible with newer Macs (I have 2, they’re not reliable, and do not seem to work if you plug into any kind of hub..i.e like what you’d need to connect it to any Apple laptop that doesn’t have USB-A).

mikethemartian 1492 comments · 18 Years

Quinn at Snazzy Labs was commenting about how Apple was still selling it a few months ago.

mpantone 2248 comments · 18 Years

Edgecrusherr said:

I just saw three of these at Best Buy on Saturday, and had a good laugh about it. They’re not even properly compatible with newer Macs (I have 2, they’re not reliable, and do not seem to work if you plug into any kind of hub..i.e like what you’d need to connect it to any Apple laptop that doesn’t have USB-A).

Not only does the SuperDrive have compatibility problems with newer Macs, it won't work on non-Apple computers (Windows PCs, etc.). With its unjustified premium price, this never made it a consideration for me.

When I was in the market for an external optical drive close to 20 years ago, I ended up picking up an inexpensive (~$25) Slimline CD-R drive that also worked with PCs. There was no reason to buy the SuperDrive as these were already commodity devices: all the drive mechanisms came from the same 2-3 companies.

A few years later I found myself in need of a Blu-ray compatible drive. Once again I spent little (~$30) for a commodity PC-compatible Slimline drive.

There was no justifiable reason why the SuperDrive had to be restricted to Macs. Sometimes Apple peripherals have features or quality superiority that make them worthy of a higher price tag. The SuperDrive never fell into this category.

That said, as an indirect Apple shareholder (and at one time a direct AAPL shareholder), I am glad some people bought this device which helped pad Apple's fat gross margins.

badmonk 1335 comments · 11 Years

We have one of the first ones made. It refuses to die and continues to work with my wife’s first gen Mac Studio like a charm.

dewme 5760 comments · 10 Years

I haven’t picked up a CD, DVD, or Blue Ray disc in 5-6 years. Like others have said the SuperDrive doesn’t play well with non-Apple devices. I still have a Samsung alternative that seems to work okay with other platforms. It’s sitting in a drawer, snuggled right up next to my SuperDrive. Tech ballast.