With this type of fiber, it would only be fiber inside the cable. Yes you do have to be a bit more careful with it, no twisting, or intense angles, but it isn’t like the connectors are any different; all the fiber work is done between chips. If you look what they have to put in a thunderbolt 4 cable, its basically super shielded 19 cable coaxial; that could all be replaced with 2 fiber lines.
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Apple Now Selling Longer 3-Meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable for Studio Display
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Unless you know the actual costs involved in making it, claiming cheap or expensive is irrelevant. It will be mass-produced in China and in all likelihood cost barely anything. Apple's profit margins are ultra-high; this bit is 100% true.
Unless you know how Covid lockdowns and supply constraints affect production and distribution, your opinion is 100% opinion.
Do all TB4 cables have dedicated circuit boards?
What's the benefit of putting a board into each cable vs adding that board as part of the TB4 port?
What's the benefit of putting a board into each cable vs adding that board as part of the TB4 port?
I have one of the 15m Corning TB3 cables. It is very thin, and by design extremely flexible. Corning's spec sheet shows you can bend it tighter than a standard cat6a cable for 10GbE. They could probably add some copper around the fiber to carry the 100w of power, and still make a braided sheath that is thinner than the Apple cable. Of course, that 15m cable cost a few hundred bucks as it was, so it would get a lot more expensive.
Then why don't you buy a 1M and a 2M and just stick them together? Should just work, right? Much cheaper solution!
Slightly more seriously, in Physics Land, everything falls off at an inverse square rate. Which means a 3 meter wire-thing would have 4/9 (44%) of the magic mojo of a 2 meter wire-thing. Now imagine that the wire-thing is carrying extremely tiny signals bopping up and down at an ungodly high rate, and how much more challenging it would be to resolve such a signal that's only 44% as strong, unless it somehow got boosted.
Yeah, I get that. But I'd argue that the 3M cable costs more because of scarcity. No one else is making a 3M cable, it's a niche product. I'm sure engineering challenges, higher tolerances and rising component costs add a few bucks. But with all that considered, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is still selling these at 80-90% margin.
Their 1.8M TB4 cable sells for an astonishing $129.
People think the pricing is insane, however if you have tried to move your computer away from your monitor using a thunderbolt cable lately, you would likely be paying this price to do it.
I was happy that I ended up with a 5.5ft thunderbolt monitor cable to do this in 2018. And when I got my Mac Studio, I reused the 4 year old thunderbolt cable to hook up the monitor. Because there still were not a lot of reasonably priced thunderbolt cable alternatives available yet.
I'm considering this cable, simply due to the fact that cable management with a VESA arm soaks up so much cable length, but will likely wait to see people's experiences.
Certainly beats the 18 inch thunderbolt 3 cable I got with my eGPU for my old Mac Mini.
I was happy that I ended up with a 5.5ft thunderbolt monitor cable to do this in 2018. And when I got my Mac Studio, I reused the 4 year old thunderbolt cable to hook up the monitor. Because there still were not a lot of reasonably priced thunderbolt cable alternatives available yet.
I'm considering this cable, simply due to the fact that cable management with a VESA arm soaks up so much cable length, but will likely wait to see people's experiences.
Certainly beats the 18 inch thunderbolt 3 cable I got with my eGPU for my old Mac Mini.
The main thing that drives the price up on these things is that it's "pro" gear and, in particular, this is niche of niche. This is the sort of thing that's priced high because it can be.
Thunderbolt cables are "active" which also helps drive the price up.
As an aside... can anyone here explain why active cables make any sense at all? Seems to me that including the logic in the device itself pretty much always makes more sense.
Thunderbolt cables are "active" which also helps drive the price up.
As an aside... can anyone here explain why active cables make any sense at all? Seems to me that including the logic in the device itself pretty much always makes more sense.
From the beginning Intel intended to support copper & fiber cables. Each would have completely different requirements, so the extra circuitry wasn't put in the device and instead in the cable. The device only has the minimum required to reliably communicate over a short distance and get the signal cleanly to the cable's transceiver, where it could then be boosted / cleaned for copper, or translated to optical for longer runs.
The overhead of putting it on the computer itself degrades performance. That’s why USB historically never actually kept to its marketed speeds, while thunderbolt does.
Also, until like last year thunderbolt was Intel only (even though it was a partnership with Apple originally designed as a fiber optic connector, LightPeak I think was the name)? Intel released the licensing a year or two ago, but it still takes time to integrate the controller.
A display is not a cable, but you are correct that different amounts of money may allow you to purchase different items.For $90 more you can buy a well-reviewed 28" BenQ 4K monitor
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As someone who has tracked specs and releases of Thunderbolt cables from v1 to v4 (both copper and optical ones), I can assure you there are NO technical differences between Apple's 1.8m $130 (or 3m, $160) TB4 cables and other Intel Certified brands TB4 2m cables, e.g. CalDigit/Cable Matters/OWC/et al. (~$60).
Literally, the only thing Apple's ones offer are braiding. ALL the Intel Certified brands above (and others) have offered 2m TB4 cables for months now (I own several), and feature exactly the same specs – inc. full 40Gb speed, 100W power, and alt. modes.
Sure, if you need the 3m one then Apple's is your only choice, currently. But both Apple's ones are extremely heavily priced essentially just for some tougher braiding outside the rubber already on the cable with same functionality. So if you need only 2m, just stick with other Intel Certified brands and save the $70 difference – or hey, buy two and still keep ten bucks, lol!
Literally, the only thing Apple's ones offer are braiding. ALL the Intel Certified brands above (and others) have offered 2m TB4 cables for months now (I own several), and feature exactly the same specs – inc. full 40Gb speed, 100W power, and alt. modes.
Sure, if you need the 3m one then Apple's is your only choice, currently. But both Apple's ones are extremely heavily priced essentially just for some tougher braiding outside the rubber already on the cable with same functionality. So if you need only 2m, just stick with other Intel Certified brands and save the $70 difference – or hey, buy two and still keep ten bucks, lol!
Screw new products, VR crap, etc, I think everyone was excited for an extra meter on their cables!
It's shameful of Apple to ripoff their customers with cables priced similarly high to those of that snake oil company Monster Cable.
Not only that... There are so many getting worked up with a major case of the shakes about the price, all to get a good slag in at Apple.
Yet not a single one will ever never need a 3 meter TB4 cable. And that's the real knee-slapper.
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Those are the same people who bitched about $10 for a USB-C to type-B cable and instead railed about “dongles” for the past 7 years as if usb-C cables didn’t exist. Some of these jokers think that having to ever buy a cable is them being screwed. It would be hilarious, if it wasn’t so pathetic.
It's not the length of the cable boys ... it's how you use it. (ok fine, I'll go away now )
)I mean that’s 3 feet. Apple does offer a 1.8 meter for less as well. Granted it’s only about 30 bucks less.
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Apple is a joke when it comes to prices . Greedy little company with big B*** but little people running it.
It's been a part of TB cables since the original (TB1). It is why all TB cables and adapters, regardless of generation, carry (relatively) high price tags.
And as for that price, if you need it, it's a bargain. If you don't need it, then it is not.
It's not "exactly the same specs" if it's shorter and lacks braiding. Length is a spec for a cable, and so is braiding.
Others are actually longer at 2m. Clearly you ignored everything else I wrote, given the rest of your response. ?