Is Thunderbolt a joke?

[BarkingGhostar]

I remember when I bought my wife the first Apple computer back in 2011. Apple loved to tout that it came with Thunderbolt. OK, so at the time almost no accessories were available. Since then TB2 and soon/now TB3.

Just bought the wife a refurbished 2015 iMac and I have to wonder with all those Apple computers being sold in the past 4.5 years how many Thunderbolt accessories are being bought.

Now, if you are a professional and using a company/business paid for external storage for some media application etc., then I get it. But for the overwhelming majority of Apple computer owners (mobile or desktop) I am not seeing the sales of TB accessories.

I went looking this morning and found statistic on Apple computers sales figures. I think these are estimates because I thought I heard something a couple of years ago about Apple not officially publishing them. Even still, the estimated was +5 million computers in Q1 2016 and +4 million Q2 2016.

That is a hell of a lot of computers and I wonder if that statistic was not reflecting something else (tablets/phones). In either event I wondered about TB accessories as I wanted to look for a TB-to-USB3 adapter.

Amazon has one and they have ~200 reviews in the past 23 months and the average/mediocre rating for it with little to no alternatives. Heck, even on Apple's website the exact same product only garnered '5' reviews in 2 years with no alternatives offered.

So, I wonder what the hype is for Thunderbolt, which isn't limited to Apple as I've seen in on several DIY motherboard products as well. TB is expensive, the accessories expensive (any that is being kind), and the average rating mediocre at best.

To me this seems like an unmitigated failure of a technology.

 

[StrangerGuy]

USB3.0 is already more than fast enough for 99.9% of people and can be found on the cheapest of PCs and devices, and they also don't wake up in the morning saying "I want to replace my bog-standard HDMI and RJ45 Ethernet with TB"

The OEMs realise that so nobody except Apple wants to pay Intel for TB in a declining PC market where every cent counts in reducing costs. It's a pointless interface along with SATA Express.

 

[PingSpike]

IMO Thunderbolt is going nowhere. Its to locked down, to expensive (to implement on devices and for users to use) and (pointlessly) to complicated.

Everything that can be implemented with USB 3.0 instead will be because every new device comes with USB 3.0 and its cheap. Which already forces it into niche status. And its high price forces it even further in that direction.

I actually consider it a much worse overall standard than the expresscard standard it replaces. Its no surprise that manufacturers of PCs that recognize the one area where TB might be useful (external graphics card or general expansion bus on laptops) have decided to just roll their own implementation. There's no reason not too. They get to discard the unneeded complexity and cost, there's no lock-in inertia to overcome (since almost no one has TB) and if their own standard took off their standard would control things.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

IMO Thunderbolt is going nowhere. Its to locked down, to expensive (to implement on devices and for users to use) and (pointlessly) to complicated.

Everything that can be implemented with USB 3.0 instead will be because every new device comes with USB 3.0 and its cheap. Which already forces it into niche status. And its high price forces it even further in that direction.

Add 10Gbit USB3.1 and TB just becomes even more pointless. Which we'll get native support for on next-gen Kaby Lake chipset. Though Intel's Alpine Ridge controller makes a very fine 10Gbit USB3.1 controller, but boards using it are expensive.

 

[nerp]

Thunderbolt 3 looks promising for external gpus over usb type c. You could have a small ultrabook able to game at home.

 

[RU482]

Thunderbolt 3 looks promising for external gpus over usb type c. You could have a small ultrabook able to game at home.

wouldn't you be CPU choked on a U-sku CPU?

 

[rchunter]

It will end up dying just like apple firewire did.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[JeffMD]

Thunderbolt is not going to replace usb3, but it will be extremely useful for external video applications. It is currently making high end external video cards possible thanks to the combination of usb and displayport. This is something we have wanted for 2 decades now.

 

[nerp]

wouldn't you be CPU choked on a U-sku CPU?

Well, in some cases, but not all. And there are non U cpus out there. I did say ultrabook, which is not a segment known for non-U cpus, so it is a consideration. But a brand new skylake core i5 or i7 ultrabook with 16GB of ram and an external gpu could play pretty much anything out today with enjoyable settings and run previous generation games with total ease. Lots of folks like the idea of not having a big desktop computer and a laptop so having say a fast ThinkPad ultrabook that you can just plop on your desk and be playing games with a few seconds later by connecting one wire is very appealing to a lot of people.

 

[nerp]

Thunderbolt is not going to replace usb3, but it will be extremely useful for external video applications. It is currently making high end external video cards possible thanks to the combination of usb and displayport. This is something we have wanted for 2 decades now.

Yes, and the thing is that it is a capability that can be carried over usb type c. And it's a versatile port. You will use it for charging, networking, video, peripherals, all at once. Having Thunderbolt 3 capable vs. not capable when you're getting USB type c anyway suddenly it's nice to have the option of connecting an external GPU if you ever wanted.

 

[Yakk]

Thunderbolt NAS enclosures work very well.

 

[StrangerGuy]

It will end up dying just like apple firewire did.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Think about the fact that Firewire failed to gain any significant foothold in the PC world when the USB competitor was only offering 12mbps.

Now imagine how steep the hill of existing cheap standards TB is trying to climb. "Herculean" would be an understatement.

 

[nerp]

Think about the fact that Firewire failed to gain any significant foothold in the PC world when the USB competitor was only offering 12mbps.

Now imagine how steep the hill of existing cheap standards TB is trying to climb. "Herculean" would be an understatement.

OK, but imagine if firewire used the same port as USB and suddenly was present on millions of devices. It probably would not have faced such an uphill battle. This is where TB3 stands.

 

[sandorski]

I remember years ago the hype about it being the next big thing. I also remember External Graphics being touted as one of those things it would bring about. So, have their been External Graphics devices released for it? I haven't heard of any. If that's because there haven't been any, I seriously doubt there ever will be any. Seems to be another dead Technology.

 

[bigboxes]

USB 3.1 Type C will is the headshot that will end it. TB was already niche.

 

[dclive]

I've a 2011 iMac / Sandy Bridge i7. I have USB2 only, so it's nice to plug in a TB -> SATA adapter and use a super fast SSD with the machine, as unfortunately this is an all-in-one that's got an internal HDD that's difficult to replace with an SSD otherwise.

I've got a MBP with TB, so I can easily attach it with one cable (audio and video and keyboard/mouse control) to my LG 34" screen, and I've got a very efficient and clean way to switch keyboard/mouse (and audio, video of course) between that MBP and a PC desktop.

TB has its' uses. I won't say it's typical for most, though.

 

[JeffMD]

I remember years ago the hype about it being the next big thing. I also remember External Graphics being touted as one of those things it would bring about. So, have their been External Graphics devices released for it? I haven't heard of any. If that's because there haven't been any, I seriously doubt there ever will be any. Seems to be another dead Technology.

Havn't heard... or can't even be bothered to do a quick google search before hitting that reply button, same thing right?

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-stealth

One of a small handful that have been announced.

 

[sandorski]

Havn't heard... or can't even be bothered to do a quick google search before hitting that reply button, same thing right?

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-stealth

One of a small handful that have been announced.

Ahh ok. Wasn't what I expected, but I suppose that would work.

 

[JeffMD]

Were you expecting them to just sell the video cards with a complete external box like usb hard drives? I think that would be kinda wasteful. The thunderbolt box is kinda LARGE but I think in time, we will quickly see compact boxes that are for compact setups and not interested in showing off or displaying the card like some rare artfifact.

 

[sandorski]

Were you expecting them to just sell the video cards with a complete external box like usb hard drives? I think that would be kinda wasteful. The thunderbolt box is kinda LARGE but I think in time, we will quickly see compact boxes that are for compact setups and not interested in showing off or displaying the card like some rare artfifact.

Pretty much.

 

[PingSpike]

I browsed around for thunderbolt enclosures for a work project research awhile back. IIRC the cheapest one I could find was over $200, didn't see if it included cables. And the reviews weren't very encouraging.

 

[JeffMD]

Currently there is some certification that is needed for the docks to work, so you pretty much need to match one makers laptop with a graphics dock by the same person. It also isn't cheap yet, gonna have to give it time.