Cinema Display Update?

[dagamer34]

Actually, I think a few people here underestimate the attractiveness of updating the Cinema Display. You forget that when Apple shifted to the 24" ACD they alienated anyone without a mini displayport. It's not unreasonable to think they might make another shift within the next year or so-- once they've transitioned all of their various Macs to Thunderbolt.

Assuming the next MacBook Air's have Thunderbolt, there's a substantial case for updating the ACD, especially if they can use that single Thunderbolt port, as others have suggested, to give me additional connectivity on my monitor (such as USB and Thunderbolt). That way I could have a lean portable but plenty more connectivity with only really having to dock it to power and display.

(Let me qualify my use of the word "substantial"-- 1) currently the ACD is already geared towards portable devices, as evidenced by the joke of a short cable my 24" display has. Not long enough to connect to a tower below my desk. 2) It's my opinion / guess that going forward, Apple will start transitioning to the MacBook Air as their mainstream portable line. Thunderbolt especially makes this realistic-- with enough bandwidth to allow it to be docked and used with high speed devices and such. I don't know if this means the MacBook Pro line would shrink, or if the Pro's would actually start adopting the SSD / optical drive-less form factor of the Air, but either way, I think thin, light, always-on Air-style laptops are what Apple will push. In that scenario, at absolutely makes sense to use Thunderbolt on the ACD-- the only question is how soon, in my mind.)

Plus, Apple only has one display they sell now, as opposed to the 3 different models they sold for so long (20, 23, 30). That's only one device to update, as opposed to three. Anyways, I'm not hurting for a new display, so I can afford to wait a while to see when this happens.

This cable should help: http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-6ft-Mini-DisplayPort-Male-Female-Extension-Cable.html

 

[jonnysods]

A new one would be nice, but I am still waiting for a firmware update to the 24" displays for my 2011 13". The thing flickers, goes black, it drives me nuts!

So firmware + new 27's. Then we are all happy!