On the surface, Thunderbolt is a really boring subject. However, after news broke over the past few days that cost was preventing wide-spread adoption from the peripheral makers, news that some (pricy) peripherals are now on sale, then news that Sony will be adopting the standard, it hit me- this could be a very big deal. A big deal from a certain point of view however.
The thing is, with any new “standard” like Thunderbolt, it’s a very chicken-and-egg scenario. Computer manufacturers are afraid to adopt the standard because there are not many third-party products currently supporting the standard. In turn, third-party peripheral manufacturers are afraid to support it due to the lack of computer manufacturer adoption. It’s a very circuitous situation.
That leads me to Apple. They jointly developed the standard with Intel. Both companies should be pushing for the adoption, and perhaps they are behind the scenes with other OEMs. But, from where I’m standing on the outside looking in, they need to publicly push for the standard. That is, lead by example. Apple could make some kick-ass products with Thunderbolt built-in.
However, I can’t foresee Apple including Thunderbolt in their iOS devices for two reasons: First, there is a mature ecosystem of third-party products built around the current 30-pin dock connector. Secondly, Apple is in the process of pushing wireless syncing with their iCloud initiative. Perhaps I’m wrong though. A user with 20,000 songs, would love a Thunderbolt equipped iPod Classic.
In short, at the moment Thunderbolt is aimed at high-end, professional users. There are no consumer-level peripherals with Thunderbolt being introduced at the moment. Perhaps that is the goal- for it to be a high-end standard for RAID arrays and other storage systems. But the groundwork has been laid for Thunderbolt to transform industry, and the speed at which tethered data transferences occur.
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