Last year when Intel launched Thunderbolt technology and only Apple launched computers with Thunderbolt port many analysts and tech journalists started calling the technology dead on arrival. However, it looks like things are going to change this year for Thunderbolt, as over 20 companies announced Thunderbolt products at CES this year. Intel also posted a press release stating:

In his CES Day 1 keynote, Intel CEO Paul Otellini demonstrated Acer’s new Aspire S5 Ultrabook with built-in Thunderbolt technology running Windows 7 for the first time. Elsewhere at CES, Thunderbolt sightings included Lenovo’s ThinkPad S430 laptop, an AOC display, as well as Seagate and Western Digital external hard-drives. In all, more than 20 Thunderbolt-enabled products were shown that are either shipping now or will be soon. Thunderbolt technology is already found on most lines of Apple Mac computers (MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, and Mac Mini) and Apple Thunderbolt Display, as well as products from LaCie, Blackmagic Design, Promise, Matrox, and Sonnet. Others including OCZ, Belkin, Elgato, AJA, G-Tech by Hitachi, Atto, Magma, Avid, and Universal Audio have announced products that are expected to be shipping this year.

We believe the slow adoption of the Thunderbolt technology was a result of pricey first generation chipset required by the standard. However, the second Thunderbolt chip is not only cheaper but also smaller and more power efficient, which should accelerate adoption. Frankly, we think that Thunderbolt is a better technology than USB 3.0, not only is it 4 times faster the USB 3.0, but it also offers features that would make docking stations for mobile devices a thing of past.