Intel’s big, square Thunderbolt controller, seen here on an “Olympus 2” prototype board, is expensive and scarce! But even then, Thunderbolt cables will remain in the near-$50 price range. This will change shortly, as third parties come up to speed with copper and optical Thunderbolt cables compatible with Apple systems. Then there is the scarcity and expense of Thunderbolt cables. This makes it difficult to produce Thunderbolt peripherals. I have talked to many of the companies that produce (or wish to produce) Thunderbolt peripherals, and all sing the same refrain: Official Intel Thunderbolt chips remain scarce and expensive.
In just over a year of availability, Thunderbolt peripherals have been scarce. Where Are All the Thunderbolt Peripherals I was wrong: The Apple Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter really is a full PCI express device, complete with its own Ethernet controller! This is easily the smallest and cheapest Thunderbolt peripheral to date, and suggests a bright future for similar devices in the future. How could Apple produce such a compact and inexpensive Thunderbolt adapter? I assumed it was just a USB device, or leveraged an onboard Ethernet chip in the MacBook Pro.
While purchasing the new MacBook Pro, Apple asked if I wanted to add a Thunderbolt to Ethernet Adapter for just $29. The Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter is truly a marvel: Compact and inexpensive, it’s a whole generation beyond all other Thunderbolt peripherals! Since there were no major feature omissions apart from Gigabit Ethernet, I decided to buy the new model. I switched from a 15 inch MacBook Pro to a 13 inch aluminum unibody model last year, but I missed the high-resolution display.
As soon as I saw the announcement of the next generation MacBook Pro with Retina display, I knew I needed to have one.
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