Intel’s new Ultrabook specifications include touchscreens, ‘WiDi’ display technology and fast processors. They say laptops cannot be above a particular height, and that they must weigh a particular amount. But what they do not require – much to the surprise of a number of tech commentators – is Thunderbolt, the groundbreaking connectivity platform developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple over two years ago. At the time, Thunderbolt was all the rage – it offered data bandwidths vastly in excess of the then-standard USB 2.0. But, then we hit USB 3.0. It’s slower, sure, but it’s very ubiquitous. It’s backwards-compatible. It doesn’t need an adapter. And sure, it’s yesterday’s tech, but that might well be enough for right now. So, is Thunderbolt gone for good? We’ll examine other companies’ takes on the matter.
Intel themselves are first up to defend the omission. Apple’s involvement meant “there were always going to be some complications”, according to Intel’s UK technical PR manager Anna Cheng. Cheng has since retracted the statement, and claims instead that the technology was developed solely by Intel. However, even the Wikipedia page for the interface standard bears Apple’s name as co-collaborator.
Generally speaking, it appears that Intel are holding on to the technology as something with more potential impact for the future. Rob Sheppard, Intel’s business client marketing manager, admitted that the technology was not going to capture big demand “at this stage”.
The market is muddied further with the use of the strong marketing name. ‘Thunderbolt’ refers to a highly successful HTC Android smartphone, as well as various GPUs consumers can purchase on the market today. USB 3.0 shares no such problems: it’s already fully market-out for data transfer.
LaCie was another manufacturer to jump on board with the Thunderbolt phenomenon. Shortly after the 2011 release of the standard, high-speed, high-storage drives began hitting the market to take advantage of market inertia. The problem? High prices. With the only commercially available Thunderbolt cables retailing at around $50 USD each and little in the way of adapters, the drives didn’t quite make the impact their designers hoped. Plus, they were only compatible with a niche set of Apple computers.
Despite Thunderbolt’s proliferation throughout the market – making appearances on Lenovo’s ultrabook platform in the T430u, S430 and T430s, Acer’s Aspire S5 and Asus’ G55VX and G75VX (as well as the ill-fated HP Envy Spectre XT TouchSmart) – did not serve to keep the platform current. Take a peek at the Google Trends search volumes for the phrase ‘Thunderbolt’ below:
Data from Google Trends
As you can see, the initial February 2011 launch spiked quite a bit of interest, which rapidly died off over time. On the other hand, search volumes for USB 3.0 make for quite different reading:
Data from Google Trends
Why is there this gap in public interest? Thunderbolt is hands-down the better standard: there are no queuing issues, it’s a genuine hardware-to-hardware connection, and it can support USB 3.0 via an adapter. So why is USB 3.0 so much more popular?
Part of the issue is to do with backwards-compatibility, sure. Part of the issue is to do with the popularisation of the term ‘USB’: it’s become synonymous with data transfer of any sort. We use USB sticks, not Thunderbolt sticks. I have a USB drive, not a Thunderbolt drive. And I get my MIDI data through a USB adapter, not a Thunderbolt adapter. Is the problem simply that we’re looking at things too early? Will Thunderbolt gradually evolve to take over from USB? This author doesn’t believe so. We’ve entered the digital age, now: and use of the term ‘USB’ in the same breath as ‘peripheral’ is a hangover we’ll have to bear for the foreseeable future.