"Apple should just include a burner @ $1099"
That's exactly what I'm saying. :-)
Apple, by its own admission and design, sells premium products. A $1,200 notebook is not an "entry-level" anything. It is a mid-market notebook. Apple simply chooses not to compete in the bargain-basement market ($500-$700), nor the "basic entry-level" market ($700-1,000). They start in the middle of the "full-featured mid-level" market ($1,000-$1,500).
You can't have it both ways. If you want to put barebones optical drives in your machines, then you are going to sell into the markets where the barebones machines are. If you want to command mid-market, full-feature price range, you shouldn't be stuffing in barebones features.
The day Apple introduces an "eBook" at base of $799, then I'll happily say a Combo Drive is the appropriate part of that package.
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