CompuServe Thread

Why not just insert a piece of foam inside the caddy which the user removes upon opening the package? Jim

Or perhaps they do not wish to house them in anything that would add overhead since they are in competition. I say lets not encumber the CD-ROM medium with any additional costs or required handling. The best thing the CD-ROM arena has to offer at this point is its frugal delivery. The more we add to production expenses the more we will jeopardize the platform. Raise the cost via mandatory caddies with every disc and you widen the door for competition. Considering that CD-ROM is still slow, cannot alter its data on the fly, requires so much hard disc space, etcetera, there is already quite a bit of room for something better to take over its market. Why cut down on its greatest advantage–cost of delivery? Let's just leave things alone, thank you. That is, let individuals decide if they prefer caddie or caddie-less drives. Heck, caddie drives would likely be in a minority if the choice had initially been fair. That is, if each and every drive marketed had provided a model for each method. When given a choice, the majority of consumers will typically elect the product that provides the lowest price and greatest freedom of use without sacrificing core features. Another consideration is that if CD-ROM disc manufacturers begin housing new releases in caddies they will soon cheapen them via making removal a bad idea. Then we should consider the caddie market that has sprung up. Now, would we wish to jeopardize such a cottage industry <hehe>? This issue is comical when considering the early push the emerging CD industry gave this now standard carrier. Boy did they tout the indestructibility of CD disks!! If folks had known that soon consumers would begin spending more money and time to protect them than they ever did for LP's the new music carrier platform would have had to find an alternate ploy. Many, many people soon [continued in the reply]