You really didn't have to quote that whole thing, you know.
You seem to think I'm suggesting that going all digital is a non option for the future. While I'm not 100% sure we're going to go down that route in a few generation's, I'm nearly sure we're going to (And at the very least, digital will become the dominant form of distribution). And certainly the infrastructure to support it is going to happen and is certainly growing and moving towards that direction as we speak. As for video streaming being proof, I'd certainly agree and never was claiming that technology had or was going to cease progressing.
It wasn't terribly long ago where the infrastructure to support something like Netflix really wasn't in place so the opponents just a few short years ago, while correct for the time, were certainly terribly incorrect if they were claiming 5 or 10 years down the road that it wasn't realistic on a widespread basis. I simply don't think we're going to be there at that point for 100% digital console distribution in five years.
If anything, it's going to be like video steaming is now where there's still an awful lot of cable and satellite subscribers, plenty of OTA television viewer's, and DVD and Blu-Ray are still significant factors in the marketplace and look set to be for years to come (Despite people claiming then and now that television viewing will shift towards all streaming). I don't think the infrastructure will be quite there a generation from now for console manufacturer's to leave retail distribution behind. And I particularly don't think that their retail chain or consumer's themselves will be ready to leave optical drives and physical media behind in such a short time.
If by some odd quirk we remember this thread a half decade or more from now, my money is on at least one more generation where physical media holds a role not unlike what digital has on over the past half decade on the three current generation console's (Particularly on the 360 and PS3). We'll see who was right then.
As for computer's, those eschewing an optical drive are a tiny minority of the marketplace and something like the MacBook Pro is hardly representative of the marketplace now or in the near future (And I don't know sure what a iMac is, but I'd hardly classify an iPad as a PC). It's certainly a viable option these days and something that will increase in the coming years. But we're a heck of a way away from optical computer drives joining 3.5" floppy drives. Some expensive high end product like the MacBook Pro is hardly a sign that optical disc drives in computer's are at death's door. Heck, it doesn't even have a HD but instead is utilizing expensive SSD's drives that cost far more per GB of storage space than the most modern HD.
Hardly representative of the average laptop out there now or the average laptop that will be sold the next few years. It's the PSP Go of the computer world jumping in at the early stages when leaving optical drives behind and utilizing SSD's has become an option but hardly a sign of an imminent trend in that direction.
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