Apple SuperDrive: Sold out in the USA, still available in Germany

Have you always wanted an original Apple DVD burner? The SuperDrive has disappeared in the USA, but is still available in Germany. Get it now!

The end of an era: SuperDrive sold out on Apple.com.

(Image: Screenshot Apple.com)

at 11:19 am CEST

3 min. read

Mac & i

By

Ben Schwan

This article was originally published in German and has been automatically translated.

"Everything you'd expect from an optical drive": Apple is quite full of words when advertising its external SuperDrive on Apple.com. The company has been offering the combination of CD and DVD burner for almost exactly 16 years, but at least in the USA this is now a thing of the past. According to the Apple Online Store, the device is now officially sold out.

Unchanged "since 2008"

The hardware was introduced in 2008, when Apple was still selling Macs with an optical drive, but there was no more room for it in the MacBook Air. The SuperDrive therefore came onto the market as a stand-alone device on which owners of the most compact portable Mac could also play and burn DVDs and CDs. Apparently the demand remained for even longer, as Apple did not remove the device from its range for more than a decade. At least there was a price reduction: from an initial 99 US dollars to 79 dollars, without any technical changes.

Although Blu-rays had long been available when the external SuperDrive was launched, they were never an issue for Apple. If you are interested, you still have to get a drive from another provider - including the appropriate software. Of course, you connect the external SuperDrive via a standard USB-A socket, so you need a dongle, a dock or a hub with today's Macs. A power supply was never necessary, the power always came from the Mac.

With 8x fully up to speed, somehow

In Europe, the external SuperDrive recently cost a little more than in America, where the price is always quoted without local sales tax: Apple wants to see 89 euros in Germany. Confusingly, the device is not yet sold out in this country. You can still order it for free to your home this Friday (or for 3.99 euros tomorrow) or pick it up in an Apple store. The weight is 335 grams, the dimensions are "hardly bigger than a CD case", enthuses Apple. The device is "compatible with Mac models from 2008 onwards that do not have an optical drive installed".

Incidentally, Apple does not provide any information on the speed of the burner in its online store. You'll have to find this out for yourself - it is a maximum of 8x for DVDs (depending on the format only 6x) and up to 24x for CDs. The external SuperDrive is still available in stores - you can even get a "bargain" here.

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