Apple did it again. If ever there was a company that could create wonderful new products that didn’t catch on anywhere outside in the real world, it’s Apple.
A few years ago Apple introduced the new, slimmer, faster, and easier to use connector called Lightning. Why? Because the iPhone and iPad were not thin enough for design honcho Jonny Ive, and the old 32-pin connector was holding back, well, ever more thinness. Plus, Lightning connector could be used upside down or right side up, so it was perfect. Except for one thing.
Lightning, Meet USB-C
Apple has this wonderful history of inventing clever new technology and bringing it to the marketplace, making it successful by using the technology itself, only to watch the marketplace select something else as a standard.
My case in point is FireWire, a high speed communication standard developed by Apple before Steve Jobs’ second coming. FireWire was great but that was then this is now.
It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple, which called it FireWire. The 1394 interface is comparable to USB though USB has more market share.[1] Apple first included FireWire in some of its 1999 Macintosh models, and most Apple Macintosh computers manufactured in the years 2000 – 2011 included FireWire ports. However, in 2011 Apple began replacing FireWire with the Thunderbolt interface and, as of 2014, FireWire has been replaced by Thunderbolt on new Macs.
You can see where this is going, right?
Remember Thunderbolt? Good. Say goodbye to Thunderbolt. Though developed by Intel, Apple’s engineers thought it had more potential than FireWire, so FireWire was mostly scuttled and Thunderbolt arrived to some applause because it used the fledgling Mini DisplayPort connector available on many devices a few years ago.
This copper-based version of the Light Peak (Thunderbolt) concept was co-developed by Apple and Intel. Apple registered Thunderbolt as a trademark, but later transferred the mark to Intel, which held overriding intellectual-property rights. Thunderbolt controllers multiplex one or more individual data lanes from connected PCIe and DisplayPort devices for transmission via one duplex Thunderbolt lane, then de-multiplex them for use by PCIe and DisplayPort devices on the other end. A single Thunderbolt port supports up to six Thunderbolt devices via hubs or daisy chains; as many of these as the host has DP sources may be Thunderbolt monitors.
Thunderbolt 3, though, uses the USB Type-C connectors, which won’t save the former because why have multiple standards on the same cable? USB-C makes Lightning and Thunderbolt appear more like Apple’s FireWire. In other words, goodbye FireWire, goodbye Thunderbolt.
Why?
Apple Pioneers, Intel Settles
Hello, USB Type C which kinda sorta mostly combines everything Apple did with FireWire, Thunderbolt, and Lightning into a single, thin, small, reversible, cable that daisy chains almost everything. There is very little to not like about USB-C. Finally, one cable for everything. There’s even potential to use USB-C as an audio cable, replacing the analog mini-jacks that have been in use since well into the last century.
Guess what? Apple wants to do that with the Lightning cable. Get rid of the old analog headphone and microphone jack in the iPhone and replace it with an all digital connection using the already built-in Lightning connector and cable. Why? Because thin.
Here’s what’s happening. Again. Just as FireWire came into prominence only to be abandoned to market forces that required a standard that everyone uses, Thunderbolt is meeting the same fate, and now we see much the same conclusion coming in the near future with the Lightning connector, which does some of what USB Type-C does but not as much and not with the same future ubiquity built in.
Lightning is Apple’s new 21st century FireWire.
Charles Wilson says
You miss THE main point why FireWire failed. For the first several years (decade?) of FireWire’s existence Apple required all licensees to pay a minimum flat fee for the license PLUS a $1.00 a connector fee. So if you wanted to make a FireWire cable you needed to pay Apple a royalty of $2.00 per cable (plus the flat fee for the initial license). That fee was often more than the cost to make the cable itself.
Plus FireWire started out at 50 Mbps (yes, that slow) and only, eventually migrated to reasonable rates. THEN to top it off, FireWire required a change in connectors when it went from 400 Mbps to 800 Mbps and higher. This required users to dump all their old cables and get new ones when they got new Apple computers.
It did not matter that the specification went as high as 3,200 Mbps back when most interconnects on computers were stuck at 500 Mbps or less. What mattered was that no one was building the chips to support those high data rates nor cables to interconnect them — not even Apple. The writing was on the wall as far back as 2003.
Lightning and Thunderbolt are both different stories from FireWire. MFi licensing is much, much more reasonable than FireWire ever was. Plus, Lightning is much more than just a simple data cable. Thunderbolt is still evolving to better implementations — and Thunderbolt 4 is in real development.
And that USB-C connector versus the mini Display Port connector? So what? Apple has already started supporting USB-C and USB-C will support Thunderbolt 3 within the next few months. It’s already in the spec and chip houses have been reported to be creating chips that support TB3 as well as the highest speed USB plus Display Port. So what if TB3 becomes one of many protocols for USB-C? For the foreseeable future it will be the fastest and most versitile protocol for that connector.
Using Macs for almost 20 years? Please. Many of us have been using Macs since 1984 (including me) and Apple products since the 70s (including me). Being a Mac user for such a short time is nothing to brag about.
carlton says
Another old Apple fan boi rambling on as if they know what’s what and who’s who.
USB-C is the future and both Lightning connector and Thunderbolt are passe. Get over it.
Jake says
FireWire didn’t fail, it was designed for the Pro markets who needed uninterupted high-bandwidth, low latency connectivity to their audio, video and graphics files. It was a huge success. Thunderbolt is a big success in the same respect.
The innovation with USB-C is that USB, display port and thunderbolt are all on the same thin connector. Technology marches on and builds on the past.
tmay says
First, a completely different view of TB 3 from a photographer and videographer, and you might want to check his bio:
http://www.dslrbodies.com/newsviews/thunderbolt-3-delivers-a.html
Good luck on running more than a single 4K screen, or (much) higher resolution, on USB 3.0.
As for Apple’s Lightning connector, it is still narrower and thinner, in close to a billion mobile products, and it has been upgraded to USB 3 performance. There isn’t any pressing need for Apple to change to a Type C connector for its mobile products.
cal worthington says
All this talk about FireWire being a ‘pro’ feature is nonsense. Apple wanted higher speed transfers and FireWire did just that until USB 2.0 came along with ‘good enough’ high speed transfers. Remember, there was a time when FireWire was on almost every Mac, pro or otherwise. Thunderbolt is too late to the party to benefit anyone but die-hard pro users because it uses an odd connector and the ‘good enough’ USB C will win the day.
Again, Apple pushes new technology only to get left out in the cold as ‘good enough’ wins.
tmay says
For the record, USB 2.0 was never as fast as Firewire 400, and for the market that Apple was targeting, isochronous data transfer over a bidirectional bus was highly valued for content creation; something that USB did not have until USB 3.0.
ben says
True that. But it doesn’t seem to have mattered much because USB won the market. I see Thunderbolt going the way of FireWire soon as USB Type-C takes over. Apple seems good at advancing better technology– and both FireWire and Thunderbolt are better in many ways– but the company cannot change market forces, and dominance belongs to USB.
doug says
Lightning is a better connector in every way, but it may go the way of firewire. I’d rather see Apple license it as an alternative USB spec.