It ’s been almost 12 month since Thunderbolt made its debut on the 2011 MacBook Pro . In that time , just a few dozen Thunderbolt product have ship , to the dashing hopes of user eager to take vantage of the loyal connection .
The reasons for the want of devices range from the technical to the financial . For Hitachi , implementing Thunderbolt technology into their mathematical product turned out to be a chip more complex than they had anticipated . Back in September , the companyannouncedthat they would set about ship Thunderbolt G - Raid and G - Drive outside drive in October , but had to put those plans on hold .
“ The complex technical nature of Thunderbolt required us to take extra time with design , examination and caliber assurance , as the inside of a Thunderbolt production is considerably more complicated than a simple USB gimmick , ” explicate Mike Williams , VP and General Manager of branded business for Hitachi Global Storage Technologies .
Thunderbolt is a year old, and Apple is still the only provider of Thunderbolt cables, which cost $49 each.
Unlike USB and FireWire , Thunderbolt combines video recording , audio recording , datum , and index into one unmarried connection , allow up to 10Gbps of information to be passed through . The technology ’s complexity even broaden to the cable , where chips in the connectors on both end of the cablegram help with the heavy lifting .
“ It ’s a developing process . It is n’t totally there yet , but we ’ve worked closely with Intel and Apple , and now we ’re see big performance , ” Williams suppose . Due to the hold , Hitachi now desire to ship products in the first quarter of 2012 .
Sonnet Technologies live a similar berth . At the NAB Show in April 2011 , the companyannounceda slew of Thunderbolt storage devices and adapter card . Since then , only one product , theEcho ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter , is presently for sale .
Thunderbolt is a year old, and Apple is still the only provider of Thunderbolt cables, which cost $49 each.
Thunderbolt is a year old , and Apple is still the only provider of Thunderbolt cables , which be $ 49 each .
“ The overall development and examination is taking a bit longer than we thought , ” explained Greg LaPorte , Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sonnet .
After looking at the price benefits , Sonnet decided to put the growing of Thunderbolt drive on the back burner and focus on making adapters . rather of releasing single Gb ethernet and FireWire 800 adapter , as originally intended , Sonnet send the Echo instead , which work with ExpressCard/34 cards . “ When we visualise how much adapters would be , we decided it would be better to put out the Echo to ply a good value , ” LaPorte said .
LaCie’s Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series is available in 1TB or 2TB hard drive capacities, or with a 240GB SSD.
In Blackmagic Design ’s case , it was n’t the technological complexness of the raw protocol that kept their products from go in the market place . Rather , it was the credentials appendage . According to Dan May , President of Blackmagic ’s US Office , products must be certified and approved by Apple and Intel before they are released . In the case of the Intensity Extreme , a video capture and playback twist , that procedure added about a few weeks to the development process .
“ We wanted to judge making it so that the machine was power through the Thunderbolt port wine , which represent some new challenge , ” May said . “ It delayed us for about a month , but we got it out . ”
May did n’t seem to mind the delay though , since he praised Apple and Intel ’s way of doing things . “ Both Apple and Intel have been hands - on in this . They ’ve made the process smooth . Everyone involved say , ‘ let ’s verify everything is done the right way . ’ ”
Some manufacturers are hold off for costs to amount down , as Larry O’Connor , chief operating officer of Other World Computing , carry toMacworld . “ Everyone point to the products that are out there and asking why we are n’t there yet , ” said O’Connor . “ But many of the same products pointed to , the identification number one charge is the mellow cost . We ’re expect for the right operation , right features , and be circumstance as well . ”
One example of that high cost is with theThunderbolt cableitself , which presently retail for $ 49 , and can only be purchase through Apple . The cheapest Thunderbolt accessory available is the Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter , which costs $ 100 — but it does n’t include an external drive .
The companies that have release Thunderbolt Cartesian product say they have been meet with praise . Mike Mihalik , Senior Engineer and Program Manager at LaCie , said customers were happy with theLittle Big Disk Thunderbolt Series , released last September . “ The response has been fantabulous , with demand exceeding our expected value . We ’ve had to increase our initial prognosis several times . Only recently have we been able to rage up volumes to play our universal demands . ”
Despite the hold and current lack of machine , companies are still emotional about the technology and its potential drop . Hitachi ’s Williams palpate that Thunderbolt ’s biggest impingement will be in video production . The new applied science “ helps laptops and screen background morph into full - fledged video editing workstations . Just imagine the blaze speed that you’re able to get while edit in the field . ”
LaCie ’s Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series is available in 1 TB or 2 TB hard campaign capacities , or with a 240 GB SSD .
Several of the company representatives pointed out that thunderclap adjustment will only proceed to flourish . Applerecently announcedthat it sell 5.2 million Thunderbolt - equip Macs in the fiscal first quarter of 2012 , outpace the rest of the personal computer industry , and the issue are expected to turn .
More products were unveiled at CES and more recently at Macworld | iWorld , where Seagate and Western Digital demonstrated their new Thunderbolt adapter and backbreaking drive , respectively .
personal computer producer have also throw their backing behind the communications protocol . Asus and Acer have expressed their interest in append Thunderbolt to their line of products later this year .
Blackmagic ’s May reckon Thunderbolt could even show up in non - computer equipment in the future . “ Thunderbolt continues to campaign boundaries , so we ’re definitely excited , ” he pronounce . “ How corking would it be to have a Thunderbolt connectedness in your car ? ”
