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Prices of Thunderbolt Cables Likely to Drop in 2013

TB I think will take hold in the market as more PC manufacturer's include it in their designs, Samsung, MSi already offer laptops with a TB option and there are Desktop PC's with the inclusion of a TB port or 2. It just seems so slow because Apple decided to jump on board so early, and as we all know Apple although having made major in roads into the PC market with their products do not have the majority % wise on owned PC/laptops. The TB will take time to take hold, this isn't a professional product for professional people, its a solution for all but needs time to to take hold and filter into the PC/laptop market.
 
Fortimir said:
In case you aren't trolling, you do realize Monster has never made a cable that was better than another cable for less money, right?

If you are, then that's a good one!
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Seriously, I can get an HDMI cable for $2.50 that's just as good as those stupid $70 things.
 
Missing the Point

The actual "way things are" is changing. The new Intel chip has embedded support for Thunderbolt, so Windows computers will be able to have these ports without spending so much on Thunderbolt. The new chips will help on the price of the connectors, and market volume will lower the prices as well. Apple chose the right horse.

And Ivy Bridge also has support onboard for USB 3.0. Which can work on Thunderbolt along with the screen and solid state storage. And firwire 800 drives.

Once more and more Ivy Bridge is out there, the device manufacturers will start pumping out affordable things along with more expensive gee-whiz suff.

Imagine a computer in pieces, connected by some future Thunderbolt. The end of the tower. Completely configurable.
 
Swift said:
Imagine a computer in pieces, connected by some future Thunderbolt. The end of the tower. Completely configurable.
Click to expand...

The possibility of a MacBook Air with an external Thunderbolt GPU makes me weak in the knees...
 
So Apple's 2-meter TB cable is now $49?

When the price is lowered, will it be $45?

Certainly, with more demand the price per cable should drop. Just don't skimp by using 30-gauge wires as some HDMI companies have done.
 
I've never seen a TB cable in the flesh, but in the pictures the connectors look huge. That strikes me as a potential problem - the further the hard section of the connector extends from the device the more easily knocked it is (and possibly damaged), the more that movement of the cable will result in movement of connected devices, and the bigger the gap you have to leave around devices. This, I imagine, will only get worse when the fibre is added. Anything that makes the connector smaller, therefore, must be a bonus, I'd have thought.

tomovo said:
If the iPhone is going to get a new connector, it should be Thunderbolt.
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so everyone who buys a new iPhone has to buy a new Mac?!
 
$49 is pretty reasonable, especially since a storage device is $1,000+. Just be happy we aren't in the analog days where quality cables were very expensive.
 
Fortimir said:
You're just moving the cost and sacrificing expand-ability. Think about how many limits are lifted by making the port "open" and forcing the cables and peripherals to utilize it. Sure it costs a hair more because you'll have more cables... but this is a pro tech, not a consumer one at the moment.
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You're only moving the cost if you plan to only use one TB peripheral. Having all the expensive tech consolidated into one port allows as many cables as you like to connect, therefore lowering the cost.
 
trims said:
Nope. Still a dinosaur.

Hands up how many of you own a Thunderbolt peripheral >2 years since launch?
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I've got a rMBP and so far:
* A Thunderbolt GB Ethernet adapter
* An external 120GB SSD HD, I might upgrade the SSD size soon
* A 27"Imac which I often use as a 2nd screen to the macbook

I put the HD together from a Goflex Thunderbolt adapter, a regular GoFlex drive case, and regular SATAIII SSD drive. I didn't really need the drive case but it makes the whole thing neater ( and less wobbly )

The drive is really fast, I have a partition which I use as the main OS for my iMac, its about three times as fast as the internal ( non SSD ) drive, and access time is even better.

I've had no problems booting off the same partition from a TB equipped macbook, although the genius in the apple store said it was a bad idea but I've been doing that for a few weeks and not found any issues yet.

Not sure what other Thunderbolt devices I'd like now, Network/Storage/Display are the 3 big devices that require bandwidth. I'd be interested in TB iPad and iPhone, but then again I haven't plugged either into my computer for ages now that iCloud syncing and OTA updates have been around.
 
Swift said:
Imagine a computer in pieces, connected by some future Thunderbolt. The end of the tower. Completely configurable.
Click to expand...

I was discussing something similar recently with a techy friend. It seemed to be a recurring conversation that started with a lament as to how sad it was that you could no longer replace batteries etc.. in modern devices, and how this was the death of the computer as separate components.

Then on the way home on the train I realised I had:
* a wireless hires screen ( iPad3 )
* tethered wirelessly to my mobile internet device ( iPhone 4S in bag )
* a bluetooth wireless keyboard
* I was recharging the phone with a Morphie battery pack ( 10,000 mvH and can charge any USB device )

So wow, this is actually the golden age of the component computer, and its all wireless to boot!

I've even, seen advertised little hard drives that present themselves as little wifi hotspots that you can connect to and stream movies or files from, that would make the whole system complete modular then, with most of the equipment in your bag and just a screen and keyboard on the table.

I certainly don't miss the days of everything having to be crammed into a big bulky tower, and needing a screwdriver to change components, the anti static wrist bands, incompatible cards, running out of slots, dropping a screw under the motherboard etcet etcet

This time round it's more like Lego.
 
I'd like a Thunderbolt to USB 3 converter, so that I can get some actual use out of my Thunderbolt port without spending a fortune.

Apple, Intel and all the TB peripheral manufacturers fumbled the ball with Thunderbolt by making it too expensive. Even if they had to take a hit on their profits and recoup their R & D over a longer time, they should have made it cheaper just to get the ball rolling. What's more, they should have anticipated this given how they're competing with such an established standard like USB.
 
trims said:
Nope. Still a dinosaur.

Hands up how many of you own a Thunderbolt peripheral >2 years since launch?
Click to expand...

If it's not on a Mac Pro it must not be any good or we don't really need it. That means that 6 GB SATA III is not really needed along with ThunderBolt. For these new Macs that only have USB & ThunderBolt all one needs is $300 or so & another 3 month or so wait for the product to allow easy access of our previous products.

Price & available products are still really limited. I was just glad to see that I could connect my old displays with my old Mini DisplayPort to DVI or HDMI connectors on it work. Even with the DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable to my 30" HP display worked without a problem.

I have a small excuse as I've only had my 17" Mac laptops with ThunderBolt for about 2 weeks now. My first step will be a multi-purpose adapter like Belkin plans to ship sometime in Sept or so. That will give my 2 new old laptops USB3 & eSATA. Plus I'll still have the card slot open for other changes. That means that it may me next year or so before I need anything more than a ThunderBolt cable. And this article says that I will have to pay a higher price if I want one before Christmas.
 
As much as I want Thunderbolt to succeed, i.e. become used by mainstream consumers and usable at public places, more or less it is apparent that Thunderbolt will be technology of a minority, those who use for professional purposes.

I don't think I can carry a Thunderbolt SSD around thinking "I shouldn't have trouble connecting this to my friends computers because Thunderbolt port is standard", rather that is USB 3.0.

Which is a shame because the performance is simply great. And also because I only have a Thunderbolt port and am extremely unlucky to own a 2011 Macbook Pro which Apple should have included USB 3.0 ports, not 2.0.
 
I still think it's stupid that the cable needs electronics in the first place. A cable should just be a set of passive wires linking two interfaces together, not be part of the interface itself. The fact that not all necessary electronics are in the devices themselves means to me that it wasn't implemented properly.
 
Laird Knox said:
I say you would be hard pressed to find any thread here that didn't. ;)
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True my friend. I think there's always a bit of resistance to expensive stuff. Everyone wants to keep more of their money in their bank.


Lennholm said:
I still think it's stupid that the cable needs electronics in the first place. A cable should just be a set of passive wires linking two interfaces together, not be part of the interface itself. The fact that not all necessary electronics are in the devices themselves means to me that it wasn't implemented properly.
Click to expand...

Necessary evil. At this speeds I'm guessing that you either need to really beef up the transceivers to account for synchronization and other issues or you take part of that logic and put it in the cable itself.
 
trims said:
Nope. Still a dinosaur.

Hands up how many of you own a Thunderbolt peripheral >2 years since launch?
Click to expand...

I have three and they were worth every penny, While I do agree the prices are high right now you can get good gear for resonable prices if you need them if you look.
 
Lennholm said:
I still think it's stupid that the cable needs electronics in the first place. A cable should just be a set of passive wires linking two interfaces together, not be part of the interface itself. The fact that not all necessary electronics are in the devices themselves means to me that it wasn't implemented properly.
Click to expand...

Its not stupid telecoms have been using active cables for years, in order for thunderbolt to achieve the 10mb speed it needs those controllers to tune the cable to get the 10 mb through put and also to multiplex the data and video streams on the fly into one stream through the cable.

----------

----------

Which ONE do you own?
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Just picked up the LaCie Thunderbolt to dual esata hub its very fast and can raid two drives on separate esata channels at the same time. I use it for my media server mini. I can run 4 ATV 3's at the same time and it has no slowdown whatsoever.
 
bungiefan89 said:
Actually, given how strong Thunderbolt seems to be, I think it could easily be an industry standard if they could drop the price.
Picture this: in the year 2015, the ONLY ports on most computers are USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. You no longer have a need for VGA, DVI, HDMI, FireWire, or even Ethernet. All of those could be run through Thunderbolt and suddenly it's much easier to connect devices to computers. Yes, it would certainly take a long time to adopt the technology like that, but it sounds like a convenient world once fully adopted, doesn't it?
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You left out 3.5 mm audio jack(s), but yes, this seems to be the idea at Apple. And I like it. Just USB 3 and TB ports = a fantastic future.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I guess this would mean the death (or at least non-use) of Firewire 1600/3200? I remember seeing rumors of them in development, but it seems pointless what with USB3/TB.
 
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