Seagate says goodbye to Thunderbolt standard

The Thunderbolt connector never became a big hit as it was no match for USB 3.0 so it comes as no surprise that Seagate is finally throwing in the towel. Bit Tech writes Seagate is ending mainstream support of the Thunderbolt standard in favor of devices with USB 3.0 or USB 3.1 support.

Announced back in 2009 under the name Light Peak before making the jump from optical to lower-cost electrical connectivity as Thunderbolt, the modern implementation of the interconnect is a joint effort between Intel and Apple. While it is the de facto standard for modern Mac machines, its uptake in the general Wintel market has been slow. This hasn't been helped by a tit-for-tat battle between Thunderbolt and USB 3.0, which has seen the two trade blows in connection speed and the latest Type-C variant to gain DisplayPort connectivity.

Apple fans don't need to worry as Seagate will continue to serve the Mac market via LaCie, which it bought in 2012, but these products obviously carry a higher price tag than Seagate's mainstream products.