APPLE Thunderbolt Really a Thunderbolt?

A big hat tip to Farhad Manjoo of Slate, who first raised doubts about the value of Thunderbolt in this post. My two cents are below.

Apple’s new MacBook Pros have faster processors, a better camera and improved graphics performance.

But no one’s talking about that, really. What they’re talking about is the new Thunderboltport.

You see, in addition to the usual USB ports you use to connect things to your computer, Apple has a new connection standard, one developed in collaboration with Intel. The idea behind Thunderbolt is that current connection speeds between computers and peripherals are too slow. External hard drives, for example, can hold an obscene amount of data, but are constrained by the comparatively sluggish pipe they rely on to connect to a computer.

Thunderbolt’s going to change all that, Apple and Intel say, and how: The new standard is up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0, which is the most popular connection format.

But we’re dealing in abstractions so far. Let’s see if Apple’s Web site can explain the payoff.

You can connect external devices like RAID arrays and video capture solutions directly to MacBook Pro — and get PCI Express performance. That’s a first for notebooks. Thunderbolt also provides 10 watts of power to peripherals, so you can tackle workstation-class projects on the go. With PCI Express technology, you can use existing USB and FireWire peripherals — even connect to Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks — using simple adapters.

Let me get this straight: RAID arrays, video capture solutions, PCI Express performance, workstation-class projects (on the go, no less), Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks.

I know it’s called MacBook Pro, but, really? Not a lot here sounds like it has any relevance to your average consumer.

That’s not to say Thunderbolt is not without value to some. Hardcore users of laptops and people who work in video (the kind of people the MacBook Pro is designed for) will love what Thunderbolt can do, but what about the rest of us? What’s in it for regular folks?

One practical benefit would be Thunderbolt’s ability to reduce cable clutter. You can daisy chain Thunderbolt devices, so one cord goes to an external drive, then another cable goes from the drive to a display, then another cable can go from a display to a, say, digital audio receiver.

That’s nice. But not entirely groundbreaking. HDMI has already done wonders behind my TV, with its single-cable capabilities for both audio and video. But I will grant you that Thunderbolt adds data to the mix, eliminates the need for hubs and radically improves the transferring capabilities with its fat pipes (10 Gbps, both ways, at the same time).

Still, this is incremental stuff. Intel likes to put Thunderbolt’s advantages in more practical terms, saying that, using Thunderbolt, you could transfer a full-length HD movie from, say, drive to PC in less than 30 seconds.

Impressive, but how often am I doing that? Some have suggested that a future iPhones and iPads could be equipped with Thunderbolt ports, allowing syncs to take only seconds, as opposed to minutes. But really, isn’t syncing itself out of date? With the growth of cloud-based platforms, data should be shared and updated on the fly. And other wireless technologies are also available, from Bluetooth to near-field communication, that will expand devices’ abilities to share data without a physical connection.

If Apple and Intel get their way, much of this doubting won’t much matter: Thunderbolt will become the dominant connection standard, allowing a single cable to do all the heavy lifting between devices. We will have a versatile, robust way to move data around at speeds that will make such transfers almost instantaneous.

Just don’t expect me to get all excited about it.