John Brownlee of Cult of Mac, commenting on a DigiTimes report about Ivy Bridge supporting Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 natively, said this about Apple’s next MacBook Airs:
What’s most of interest to Apple fans here won’t be the competition finally catching up, but the fact that this same Ivy Bridge platform is what Apple will build the next MacBook Air around, which means that the next Air (and Apple’s other laptops) will finally adopt USB 3.0 as a matter of course. Of course, who needs USB 3.0 when Thunderbolt’s around anyway?
That certainly is a bold prediction. I am hard-pressed to see why Apple would implement USB 3.0 in any of their machines. Clearly, they are betting big with Thunderbolt and Intel. If they build in USB 3.0, it undermines the adoption of Thunderbolt. Clearly, Thunderbolt is the superior technology, and we’re seeing more manufacturers jump on the Thunderbolt bandwagon already. Unless the market for Thunderbolt completely fails to take off, there isn’t any good reason for Apple to support it — even if it is easy to do so with their platform of choice.
What do you think? Is Apple going to be using USB 3.0 any time soon, or will Thunderbolt continue to be their only next-gen connector technology? Sound off in the comment section so we can hear your thoughts. Let’s talk it out.
