That would be crazy given that having a CD drive hasn't been standard on new laptops for like a decade— Apple's last portable computer with an optical drive was 2016.
According to ChatGPT, the final AOL free trial CDs were in 2006.
The elderly and maybe the very rural. I have a tough time thinking there is anyone rural enough who would not go for satellite internet though. Satellite TV is pretty standard in the country.
I think its just pricepoint. Dial up was like $20 or $25 a month. If someone cares so little about modern internet to be fine with dial up speeds, they don't want to spend the money for satellite internet plus the dish and installation costs.
Dial up bandwidth is of course bad, but how is latency in dial up vs satellite? Geosync orbit satellite latency is abysmal, unless you are talking about low orbit.
That's actually a pretty genius idea if one were promoting a tech product with retro vibes and mailing to journalists/media. The main messaging would just be the color printing on the disc and sleeve as few would have a CD-ROM drive handy to play it, but those that do would love it if you put something cool on the disc (maybe a short Myst-like adventure with a product tie-in).
I still have a SATA CD/BD-ROM drive in my main PC system under the desk, not because I need or use it much but because the system is in an older tower PC case on wheels that I keep putting new mobos in because it's high-quality, flexible, roomy, quiet and has a ton of slide-out media bays. The CD-ROM has just stayed installed in the case as new mobos get installed and there's always extra SATA ports to plug it into.
