Thunderbolt Adoption Reportedly Slowed

Last July, Ars Technica took a look at the state of the Thunderbolt standard developed by Apple and Intel, noting that adoption remained slow amid high pricing some eighteen months after the standard's introduction. The report did, however, suggest that pricing could begin to improve in 2013 as the next generation of Thunderbolt chips hit the market.

Ars Technica has now published a follow-up report looking at how things have changed over the past six months, pointing to a number of improvements such as slightly lower pricing on Thunderbolt cables from Apple, the introduction of the first wave of optical cables supporting the standard, and the launch of new docking stations and other peripherals taking advantage of Thunderbolt.

The report indicates that the biggest holdup to wider adoption of Thunderbolt appears to be Intel's licensing and certification process, with the company dedicating only limited resources to helping third-party vendors bring their Thunderbolt products to market.

Several vendors we have spoke to over the past year have claimed that Intel was holding up the process, cherry picking which vendors it worked with.

Though Intel had effectively denied this characterization in the past, the company explained the situation a bit differently when we spoke at CES last week. Jason Ziller, Director of Thunderbolt Marketing & Planning at Intel, told Ars that Intel has "worked closely" with vendors it felt could "offer the best products" and could meet its stringent "certification requirements." The subtext seemed to be that Intel had limited resources to support and certify new products, and so it gave priority to devices that were perhaps more novel than those proposed by other makers.

Ziller indicated that Intel would be broadening its efforts this year, suggesting that more Thunderbolt products may be able to make their way into consumers' hands. Combining those efforts with continued cost drops and the first moves into Windows machines, Apple and Intel are undoubtedly hoping that 2013 will finally see Thunderbolt turn the corner. [MacRumors]

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Three UK Trottling May 2012

Three have started to throttling our connections since last month. They were advertising all you can eat data when I signed up. This is something new called TrafficSense.

"About TrafficSense™.

We’re the network designed for data. We’ve spent millions over the years strengthening our network, covering over 97% of the population. We already carry over 40% of the UK’s mobile data traffic – and more people join Three every day, because they know that we’re the experts when it comes to the mobile internet.

Our core belief is that everybody deserves to have the best possible experience using a fair share of our network.

That’s why we’ve invested heavily in our network’s capacity, buying the radio spectrum and building the infrastructure we need to make it great for data. But it’s a fact that no mobile operator has an unlimited amount of network capacity, so while we’ll continue to invest, we also have a responsibility to make sure the network we already have is used wisely.

Part of this involves making sure that everyone gets a fair allocation. A mobile data network is a shared resource, so if a small percentage of users are using the network in a way that stops the majority of users getting a fair share, we’ll manage data traffic to make sure that those small percentages of users get the best possible experience without affecting others’ enjoyment.

We call this intelligent management of our network TrafficSense™.
What is TrafficSense™?
TrafficSense™ looks at types of data traffic and behaviour that stop other users from enjoying a fair allocation of our network. TrafficSense™ will only manage a very small percentage of users on our network – and the vast majority will actually benefit from higher speeds and a better internet experience.

TrafficSense™ identifies:

File sharing.
Between 3pm and 12 midnight, we allocate a proportional amount of our network to file sharing, so that all other types of traffic can make the most of it as well.

We don’t block file sharing. We just manage it at times when it affects the enjoyment of most other users using our network to do other things, such as browsing.

Tethering.
Tethering is connecting another device like a laptop to your phone to access the internet.

A small number of users try to tether outside of their terms and conditions. When this happens, TrafficSense™ either blocks their tethering completely or restricts it to a very small allocation of our network.

High data use.
5% of the highest users actually take up around 60% of the Three network capacity, which inevitably affects the way others can use it.

TrafficSense™ regularly identifies users in the top 5% highest data users each month and allocates bandwidth on a proportional basis for the following seven days. This makes sure the remaining 95% of users also get fair access and the best possible internet experience."

Totally different from their motto of the customer not having to worry about their data consumption.

What do you think about this? Leave your comments bellow.

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