Oh well I have a late 2012 iMac and have 1TB Buffalo external HD plus 1TB firewire/adaptor/Thunderbolt external HD attached to my two Thunderbolt ports. They work very well and transfer times subjectively way faster than the USB ports. Also have upgraded the firmware...no problems. So I guess I'm one of the ten really enjoying the Thunderbolt ports.
WTF does "transfer times subjectively way faster" mean? Grammatical issues aside, the word
subjective in there connotates the speed differences are all in your head. Most single drives (even SSD) don't saturate USB 3.0 so they would almost have to be subjective differences rather than actual ones. I have seen some high-end setups using multiple drives in a RAID-like configuration that would do well with Thunderbolt, but they're the extremely rare exception, not a typical consumer drive.
Frankly, I've read some reports of the USB 3.0 version of certain Lacie drives running FASTER than the Thunderbolt versions. One would think it would be the other way around since you could saturate the USB bus with multiple items attached, but since it's a new technology, it's probably got some bugs (hence the recent firmware update to TB)
I find it odd that you say the current MBPs are somehow not "Pro". They are incredibly capable, well built, and well specced.
Well specced doesn't mean "Pro". Historically, the "Professional" Macs were typically most commonly used for video and/or audio production (i.e. Final Cut and Logic being the two biggest sellers). Both typically used Firewire interfaces (dropped entirely on the rMBP unless you want to carry around an adapter). Most newer camcorders, etc. are digital today so the Firewire may not be needed as much, but most "Pro" audio interfaces are still largely Firewire based (i.e. I haven't seen a USB 3.0 one yet and there are few TB ones available, one of which is mostly a TB-to-FW800 conversion). Many professionals made use of the Express Card expansion port (dumped in favor of a stupid one-size-only card reader) for anything from adding eSata ports to USB3.0 cards (I have one of those myself) to a second FW bus. Losing that port has been a disappointment for some time. True matte screens were replaced with glass screens (eventually offering a matte overlay, but true matte is gone). Ethernet is gone (again an adapter is needed). Forget about a quick burn of a DVD or BD disc for video or a CD for audio. No drive is included any longer (yet another external device to carry around in your bag).
But it would appear
your definition of a "Pro" is anyone who makes money in any form on their computer, including people hawking junk on eBay, which could be done from an iPhone now even. That's not the sort of market segment I am talking about or most enterprise uses (since short of running Windows with something like BootCamp or VMWare, Macs are rarely used in Enterprise).
We went from a "Pro" Macbook in 2008 that had a replaceable battery, true matte screen option, separate FW400 and 800 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet Port, full size DVI port, 2 USB ports, an Express Card expansion port and a dual purpose audio jack to a computer that has two USB ports, an SD card reader port, an audio jack and two Thunderbolt ports that double as the external video port(s). To even connect devices at home, you're probably going to need some kind of docking station (not cheap for the "announced" Thunderbolt ones and Apple's dock only comes attacked to a monitor and still uses ancient USB 2.x; I guess they can't be bothered to update the darn thing). All "Pro" Macbooks in 2008 had their own NVidia GPUs. Now the 13" "Pro" models only have Intel integrated (yet another step backwards).
Just going off of your sig, it would appear that you require a fair amount of storage yet place the highest priority on price/GB. You list all rotational media and not a single SSD. If you were a pro who billed out hourly for work
Who said I use my 3TB drives for professional use? I don't. They power my whole house audio/video setup based on AppleTV. They don't require SSD speed. In fact, most people on Earth don't actually
need SSD speed since most of them do little more than boot their computer and surf the Net with it. It's mostly about specs...a peeing contest if you will. Frankly, unless you are a video producer or perhaps even a programmer, SSD is overkill.
I do make music on the side with Logic Pro, but frankly, a 7200 RPM drive is still more than adequate for 25+ tracks at once. Again, SSD is overkill and until recently wasn't available in sizes required for large projects, or at least not on a single internal drive at a reasonable price. Yes, it would be cool to boot faster, but then the computer is usually just set to sleep anyway so it's moot most of the time.
You're crying about Apple not making Macs for Pros anymore, yet all your arguments are based on consumer / SOHO / small business logic, not that of the professional / enterprise market.
Again, there is NO real enterprise market for the Mac and the video market has shrunk a LOT due to Apple's blundering of the Mac Pro and the garbage release that was the initial Final Cut X.
I realize that the best bang for the buck right now is buying a 3TB external in a USB 3.0 enclosure because they run about $120. However, if you need a bunch of them, you end up with a (usually crappy) power adapter and USB cable for each one, you start to run out of USB ports and room on the power strip, then you need a hub... Have you looked at just getting a 5 bay USB 3.0 enclosure and throwing all your drives in there? The
Why would I want to do that when I'm only using one at a time (the second one is a local backup and the third is an off-site backup).
I've seen an enormous amount of notebook users dropping off their notebook. The highest amount of external devices hooked up to the notebook I've seen is 1 and that's only for the people who use either a usb mouse or one with its own wireless transceiver.
Dropping them off where? An Apple Store? Why would they bring external peripherals there? I find it hard to believe most people only carry a mouse at most with them. OTOH, what's "most" people? The same people that would do just as well with just an iPad???
Here's just a short list of items I might need if I were buying a rMBP based on my current usage of my existing MBP:
1> Ethernet adapter (still needed at some hotels with bad or non-existent WiFi)
2> Firewire adapter (my audio interface is Firewire 400 so I'd need both the FW800 adapter and a FW400 adapter to connect it to the FW800 adapter port; my current MBP has both FW400 and 800 ports and so it's just a simple plug-in).
3> DVD/CD Writer drive (I do make CD-R and DVD-R burns occasionally and if I need it while I'm away from home, I'd need to bring a portable drive with me since the rMBP has no optical drive)
4> Mouse (one you already mentioned; the trackpad isn't great for everything)
5> Backup drive if i were going to be away for a long period or needed to backup an important project (e.g. a live recording I couldn't replace). I currently use a FW800 drive with the MBP, but I've moved to USB 3.0 backup on my Mac Mini since it's faster/cheaper.
With my current MBP, all of those would work with just two USB ports needed (and it has 4 ports with a USB 3.0 Express Card installed). With the rMBP, I'd potentially need three ports plus two adapters and two external drives to carry around. This is step backwards, IMO and avoidable had Apple provided enough ports.
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