Along with Apple’s refresh of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Mini product lines, Apple also released the first ever Thunderbolt-enabled peripheral: the monstrous and divine 27″ Thunderbolt Display. At $999 it isn’t cheap, but considering it’s exactly the same price as its much-lauded Cinema Display predecessor, you can’t complain too much — especially when you discover that the Thunderbolt Display packs no less than three powered USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a FireWire 800 port, and another Thunderbolt port to continue your delightful daisy chain of brushed aluminium and pearly peripherals.

With a single Thunderbolt cable, the Thunderbolt Display basically functions as a glorified, 2560 x 1440 LED-backlit docking station or expansion hub — and indeed, Apple is advertising it as the ideal docking station for the new MacBook Air which only has two USB 2.0 ports and a single Thunderbolt port for expansion. If you want wired Ethernet you have to buy a USB adapter, and if you want FireWire then the Thunderbolt Display, as expensive as it might be, is the only option. You might laugh at the fact that this new monitor actually doubles the total number of Thunderbolt-enabled peripherals — but seriously, with one simple, swift, and very, very Jobsian move, Apple has shown us a brief glimpse of what computing could be like with a single-cable unified interconnect.

You see, we are almost certainly moving towards a world where the only computer we own will be wearable, or simply a smartphone. There will be niche markets that require larger desktop and workstation machines, but for the most part we’ll all just carry our computers with us. With increased portability, however, data input and output become serious issues. If we assume that an RJ45 socket in the back of your head a la The Matrix is a few decades away, the only real option is ubiquitous docking stations. With netbooks you can at least plug in a normal display, keyboard, and mouse without adapters and dongles, but the MacBook Air and Sony’s new Vaio Z are certainly a sign of things to come. If Thunderbolt truly takes off, it’s not crazy to assume that we’ll soon be carrying smartphones with just a power socket and a Thunderbolt port. Plug a keyboard, mouse, Ethernet cable, and any other peripherals into a Thunderbolt Display, and then just “jack in” when you arrive at the office or when you get home.

The only real roadblocks to this utopian future are size and cost: the Thunderbolt socket is too large for smartphones or tablets, and the only entry points are a $999 27″ display and a $999 MacBook Air. Imagine if there was a 22″ Thunderbolt display-cum-docking-station that you could get for $300 — and likewise, where is our Thunderbolt-enabled $500 Windows laptop or netbook? Imagine if Apple/Intel released a Thunderbolt form factor that wasn’t hindered by its chubby Mini DisplayPort progenitor. When Intel first showed off Light Peak, Thunderbolt’s precursor, it was socket-compatible with USB — so it’s definitely possible — and Micro USB would be the perfect socket choice for a peripheral interconnect.

Better yet, though, imagine if you could simply buy a Thunderbolt breakout box — like a USB expansion hub, but with just a single Thunderbolt cable going in and every other connector type going out. A single, little box with VGA, DVI, DisplayPort, Ethernet, USB, and FireWire connectivity — and heck, why not eSATA and external PCI Express while we’re at it? You could even bury these Thunderbolt hubs in wall sockets around your house or office…

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