Apple Reduces Cost of Thunderbolt Cable, Launches New Short Version

[Anthony Bouchard]

Apple was one of the first companies to push Intel’s new Thunderbolt technology into their personal computer lineup. Apple sells their own Thunderbolt cables so that you can attach any Thunderbolt accessories that you might have to your Mac to take advantage of the lightning-fast 10-Gb/s transfer speeds that Thunderbolt has to offer.

Usually $49 apiece, these two-meter long Thunderbolt cables are far from cheap. Apple today, however, reduced the price of these Thunderbolt cables by $10 as 9to5Mac reports. Apple is now selling the two-meter long Thunderbolt cables for $39 apiece, which should help a little bit in terms of affordability.

Additionally, Apple is making available a shorter version of the Thunderbolt cable, at half of a meter long, for $29. This even cheaper cable is a quarter of the length of the original cable and will be perfect for household use on the computer desk. The longer cable had reach in mind and the extra length would help in commercial environments more so than household environments.

While the price of the Thunderbolt cables may have gone down slightly, the cost of Thunderbolt accessories continues to be pretty high. Thunderbolt still has a long way to go before it reaches any practical mainstream uses.

Sources: Apple via 9to5Mac

[Silverado1987]

I think the shorter cable should be $19. Just my 2 cents

[Raptor2213]

I think they should have made the cable a cable without the $20 chip in the tip that makes the cable cost so friggin' much. They could EASILY have put the chip on the port, rather than the cable and made it affordable.

[DaLsim]

I think they should have made the cable a cable without the $20 chip in the tip that makes the cable cost so friggin' much. They could EASILY have put the chip on the port, rather than the cable and made it affordable.

Crapple greed, Not care what people's need.

[NSXrebel]

Crapple greed, Not care what people's need.

You do know Thunderbolt belongs to Intel, right?

[spazturtle]

I think they should have made the cable a cable without the $20 chip in the tip that makes the cable cost so friggin' much. They could EASILY have put the chip on the port, rather than the cable and made it affordable.

Er no, the point is that you simply have to upgrade the cable to get a faster speed, when thunderbolt reaches 100Gbps full duplex we will be able to get those speeds on our existing hardware because the chip is in the cable. So instead of having to buy a new computer every time the speed goes up like with USB you can simply change a cable.

[CZroe]

You do know Thunderbolt belongs to Intel, right?

The transmission technology. Not the interface cables/connectors Apple implemented.