Thunderbolt market is beginning to grow in 2013. Benefited from Apple’s products, PC Windows camp, high-end computers, and large screen applications to include Thunderbolt interface protocol, demands of Thunderbolt connector and cable will rise significantly, and expects to contribute revenue to the industry.
Lintes Technology and its parent company, Lotes, got Intel and Apple jointly authorized certification to manufacture Thunderbolt connector and cable in August 2011. In the past year, more and more non-Apple joined Thunderbolt camp, including AIO computers, storage devices, docking station, displays and other applications. Thunderbolt has got rid of the bottleneck and will grow steadily in market revenue in foreseeable future..
Except the proportion of Thunderbolt applications is growing in non-Apple camp, Apple has also expanded the Thunderbolt technology into its products. Apple’s iPhone 5, iPad 4, the fifth-generation iPod touch, have all replaced the connectors and cables with Lightning version, which the design has been reserved for Thunderbolt expansion in the future. Therefore, the future products of Apple will be equipped with Thunderbolt not only on computers, but also the next generation of mobile phones, tablets and even smart TVs, thus driving demands on peripherals.
High-resolution images and videos is the trend. After consumers gradually get used to such experience, it requires high-speed data transmission interface like Thunderbolt technology, no matter it is the display, computer hard drive and other storage products. Therefore, there are a number of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) products have been equipped with Thunderbolt interface, and expected to be on the market in the second quarter or third quarter of this year.
According to ITRI (Industrial & Technology Research Institute), under the growth in 3D, ultra-high-definition contents, Thunderbolt connector and cable market value will soar to $700 million from 2013 to 2017, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37%. It is worth noting that, in order to further expand the application level, there are many vendors have recently launched Thunderbolt fiber optic cable to extend the transmission distance up to 100 meters. Lintes Technology itself is developing fiber-optic network cable and will rely on this advantage quickly to cut into Thunderbolt fiber optic cable market.