When Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) declared new Macs last week, one thing that was particularly not included in the new models presented was an optical drive. Philip W. Schiller, a senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple Inc. (AAPL), has mentioned declining customer demand as the reason behind the company’s choice to remove optical disc drives in the super-slim iMacs all together.

Schiller was giving an interview to Time, when he explained why the 2012 iMac and the 13in retina display MacBook Pro will not come with optical drives. He said that Blu-ray demand had declined and that disc drives showed an obstacle to Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s design culture as a whole.

Schiller believes a plan to remove these rotating medias from their computers and other devices was good as they have inherent problems such as they were mechanical and sometimes break, they use power and are large. Further, he said they were capable to create products that have smaller size, lighter and consume less power. Another reason for the move was that these old technologies were holding them back and they seek the things that have outlived their useful purpose.

The stock has been moving between $363.32 and $705.07 for the last 52-week period. The year-to-date (YTD) performance reveals about 50% gain as compared to 2011. During the past month shares have declined 9.46%, trimming three-month performance to just +1.5% and six-month performance to +3.43%.