Do the folks at Apple hate monitors?  Because everyone *I* know that doesn’t work on a laptop exclusively needs one.  And the current Thunderbolt monitor seems to be going for the highest priced piece of obsolete technology award.

When it was introduced on July 20, 2011, a huge jump at the time it was not.  Instead, it was simply a revision of the LED cinema display that came before it a year ago.  In all honesty, the panel specs have been around many years now and the industry has moved forward dramatically.  Ironically, this is in great part due to Apple themselves pushing Retina quality displays across all of their products … EXCEPT THEIR STANDALONE MONITORS!

On the other hand, many third party monitors today are Retina quality, and they look beautiful.  I’m running on a 5K display right now … the HP z27q.  It has 4 times the pixels in the same display area as the Thunderbolt monitor.  Oh sure, it’s a little weird to set up, but it’s also the monitor I stare at for 8 hours a day.  Worth it.  Even a 4k monitor is running about 400 dollars now compared to a new Thunderbolt monitor at 999.  That kind of pricing is just madness.

I bought a Thunderbolt monitor once, back in 2012 or so.  I probably won’t ever make that mistake again.  USB 2.0 ports and a proprietary Thunderbolt connector means you’ll never ever be able to use it as a TV or with another computer of any kind.

We’ve speculated a lot about the reasons why the Thunderbolt monitor is still out there.  Are they waiting for Thunderbolt 3 so that they can do 5K over a single cable?  Is working on the monitor team a dead end career path at Apple?  Is Apple just deciding to get rid of their own monitor lines altogether?  Who knows.

Release the monitor.  Support dual Displayport 1.2 connections to it just like you do with third-party monitors today.  When Thunderbolt 3 is ready (actually, it’s ready now, but was for some reason skipped in your latest generation of hardware) then release a breakout adapter so everything works over a single cable except at the very end of the chain.

We have to buy monitors for our desks, Apple.  That’s not going away.  Making us buy the Thunderbolt monitor from 2011 is just madness.