Apple launches shorter Thunderbolt cable in US, to arrive in UK ‘soon’

Apple has introduced a new, shorter Thunderbolt cable in the US, and has confirmed to Macworld that it will be launching in the UK ‘soon’.

First spotted by 9To5Mac, Apple has lowered the cost of the 2m Thunderbolt cable, which was first introduced in June 2011, from $49 (£30) to $39 (£24) in the US. The company has also unveiled a new, shorter, 0.5m model, which costs $29 (£17).

The shorter cable and price drop have not yet made an appearance in the UK Apple Store, but an Apple spokesperson told us that the 0.5m Thunderbolt Cable will be in the UK store “soon.”

The spokesperson didn’t comment on whether there would be a UK price reduction on the 2m Thunderbolt cable. We’ll keep you updated when we find out more. At present, the 2m Thunderbolt cable will set you back £39. Based on the new price in the US, we would expect the new price to be £29 (based on the US price with 20% VAT added). 

The Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter and the Thunderbolt to Gigiabit Ethernet Adapter remain available for $29 each in the US, so no price drop there. In the UK, they’re priced at £25 each.

Thunderbolt, introduced by Intel and Apple in early 2011, is an interconnect that shuffles data between host devices and peripherals at a speed of 10Gbps (bits per second) per channel, or at 20Gbps over the two existing data and display channels. Thunderbolt is faster than rival USB 3.0, which transfers data at 5Gbps.

Intel has recently said that it is working to make the Thunderbolt data technology faster as it wages a speed race with the USB 3.0 protocol, but the company declined to say when the improvements would be finished.

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