“Intel and Apple are underselling Thunderbolt – for good reason – but make no mistake: Thunderbolt is part of of your future. Here’s how Thunderbolt will roll out – and why,” Robin Harris writes for ZDNet.
“Peripheral availability and cost will be the main reason Thunderbolt doesn’t take off fast,” Harris writes. “Thunderbolt is a solution to high-end problems, not the consumer mainstream, today. But if Intel is wise, they’ll drive Thunderbolt’s pricing down fast to make it more attractive than FireWire was at its peak.”
“But consumers will gradually learn to consume a lot more bandwidth and they always like simpler cabling,” Harris writes. “It will take a few years, but if it is priced correctly, Thunderbolt will become a mainstream consumer technology.”
Harris writes, “Given Apple’s high-end dominance, I’d expect only HP and Dell to to join the Thunderbolt brigade along with a few workstation mobo’s. Thunderbolt will cement Apple’s stranglehold on the creative pro market.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple’s new MacBook Pros benchmarked: The performance increase is amazing – February 25, 2011
iFixit teardown of Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Pro reveals Thunderbolt, other details – February 25, 2011
Intel: Apple has year-long headstart on Thunderbolt – February 24, 2011
Bell tolls for USB: Thunderbolt is amazingly, screamingly fast – February 24, 2011
Apple updates MacBook Pro with next-gen processors, graphics and thunderbolt I/O technology – February 24, 2011
Thunderbolt has arrived at a decent time – the beginning of the transition from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0. It would have been much better if Intel-Apple could have given it a year or two head start. But at least it has a fighting chance against the momentum of USB.
One plug to rule them all?
Tolkien is now rolling in his grave………. 🙂
I would love to have that feature on the Mac mini I got last fall that is under my HDTV in the living room. When the time comes that I need it, I assume I will replace the Mac mini with a new one with Thunderbolt. People like it when I up grade. Free used Macs alway gets a smile from someone that needs one!
Sounds like me! When I upgrade I always find a family member to donate it to and they never refuse! LOL Made a few switchers from my mac hand-me-downs. lol 😉
Apple is going to update their Cinema Displays to be Thunderbolt compatible. You’ll have USB ports, Firewire ports, maybe even a network cable plugged into your monitor, and only one cable running to your MacBook Pro. Awesome.
Remembers me of the umbilical cable on the original NeXT computer, just thinner…
@Kingmel: Actually, I think it arrived at a perfect time. A lot of poeple are thinking “hmm should I switch to USB3.0” and many are ready to make a switch. Now, with a competing technology in the spotlight, that is not only faster, but much more convenient, many will consider. It was the same way Snow Leopard was launched at a time where many people were getting ready to make the switch to Windows 7. Then, they realized, if I’m going through this much trouble, why not Mac?
I think the timing was perfect. 🙂
Hey guys… there are “Reply” links now. You don’t have to “@” people anymore. Just thought I’d help.
Thanks. It’s hard to change habits. No?
@Jersey_Trader I’ve been thinking for a couple of years that a Mac mini would be great underneath my TV. hint hint
waiting for my thunderbolt card for my MacPro…..then a Thunderbolt enabled NAS would be amazing…..
Because of the way it has to be connected directly to the video, CPU and PCI bus internally, you can’t “add” Thunderbolt. It has to be there on the motherboard.
not necessarily doubting you, but are you sure about this? This would kind of be a major issue for those who want mac pros because of their customizability. I’m in the market for a Pro, and was thinking about pulling the trigger in the hopes of getting a TB card. Might just have to wait.
Thunderbolt will cement Apple’s stranglehold on the creative pro market.
Why is the popularity of a product — purchased willingly — described as a “stranglehold”?
It the Only future.
It converts every port to PCI express standards. The PC will be clutter-less and ONE cable daisy chained to all peripherals. will make life a breeze.
And Apple has already patiented a hub for the transition where USB Firewire etc will be converted to Thunderbolt.
Bring it on!
In a few years it will be wireless. Data and power.
The article said that Sony is committed to TB, that will be a big advantage. Having Sony put TB in their video cameras and PCs will push the pro and prosumer to adapt it quickly.
FCP, and Logic have the ability to take over other computers in a network and use their CPUs, making them a small super computer. With TB this will be a easy setup and affordable to smaller players in video and audio. You could have a few friends over and use their computers to render large files very quickly. This may be a reason that Apple has been slow to update FC, they were waiting until TB was out to take full advantage of it. If Lion has the ability to connect CPUs that could make super computing for the masses, and a big advantage to Windows. Local photo, video, music, etc. clubs could take advantage of this. This could be a game changer for small shops and schools. I do hope this is in Lion, not just pro software.
I love the idea of TB especially in media environments where there is a lot of connectivity. I hope that more and more devices switch to this, even in the upper end so we can finally put to the rest the various cables and connectivity challenges.
So now my recently purchased $4k Mac Pro is totally incompatible with this new technology since it can’t be added via a PCI card. It would seem that the real agenda here is to sell more hardware. Has anyone else noticed this?
In the short run, I’d say moving hardware is ALWAYS the “real agenda” of every tech company, but in the long run, Apple and Intel are implementing an improvement that will eventually trickle down to everyone and throughout the industry.
I don’t understand the tech behind it myself, but are your sure it isn’t compatible with a PCI card?
I have read nothing that indicates a PCI express card couldn’t be used to add this connector. In fact, Thunderbolt essentially taps directly into that bus, so such a card seems like a real possibility.