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Does USB Type C Herald the End of Apple's Proprietary Connectors?
An anonymous reader writes The Verge has an interesting editorial about the USB Type C connector on the new Macbook, and what this might mean for Apple's Lightning and Thunderbolt connectors. The former is functionally identical to USB Type C, and the latter has yet to prove popular in the external media and "docking" applications for which it was originally intended. Will Apple phase out these ports in favour of a single, widely-accepted, but novel standard? Or do we face a dystopian future where Apple sells cords with USB Type C on one end, and Lightning on the other?
Thunderbolt is not a proprietary connector to Apple. It is a standard that Intel has made available and i've seen non-Apple computers with Thunderbolt.
They would do whatever makes them more money, is there any doubt about that?
Since Steve Jobs came back Apple has only introduced proprietary connectors when there was a really good reason for them to do so. Lightning was introduced because Micro USB was considered sub-par by Apple. And let's face it: There is some truth to that. Lightning is sturdier, easyer to handle, has more data throughput and IIRC more relyable electrical specs. Say about Apple what you want, but unlike quite a few other tech companies they actually know what they are doing and why and they don't short-change hardware design decisions. Their market evaluation seems to prove them right.
In a nutshell: If Apple decides that USB C is worthwhile and offers upsides vis-a-vis lightning, it could be that this actually is the case, and Lightning actually is on the way out.
As for Thunderbolt: Unlike what quite a few tech experts think, it is *not* an Apple specific spec, but a standardised port. It's only that Apple likes to use it more than any other vendor.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
USB C still has that ridiculous plastic tab inside the female port that can break quite easily if you trip on the cable. Plus in a pocket it can fill with lint and prevent the cable from seating securely.
Thankfully USB C is reversible (finally!) but compared to the proprietary Apple connector, it still is inferior in my opinion.
For some reason, your post implies you think Thunderbolt does not supply power to its devices. This is simply not true.
Even if the specification did not provide power in and of itself, its use of the PCI-E bus does require it to provide power over its lanes. In fact, one of the advantages of Thunderbolt when it first came out was providing twice as much power as the fastest USB at the time. Thunderbolt 2 provide at least double that amount of power when it was released.
Thunderbolt is not a standard like Dockport, which requires you to use a display port to USB adapter to access USB devices, as it was never inteded for strictly that purpose. Thunderbolt was created to bypass the need for the USB middle man, and provide direct access to the PCI-E bus for devices that could benefit from it, such as arrays of disks, analog video feeds, and other prosumer/business logic.
A big thing USB 3.1 is touting is the ability to tie two SSDs together in a RAID 0 configuration and not max out its bandwidth. But it will at three SSDs. Thunderbolt could already handle 3 of these in its first spec, and can handle more in the 2.0 version. Not to mention 3.0 which is still in the works.
That is what Thunderbolt is intended for.
That is a severely regressive design move.
This computer should have retained magsafe for charging then had one of these USB-C things for, you know, port stuff.
My current MBP would have been knocked from table/chair to floor ten times now if not for magsafe. What the hell were they thinking?
I can only hope the next ultralight MB Pro retains magsafe and a couple of ports.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?