... I hoped that Apple would release it's own range of products, like PCIe docks, thumb drives, large multi drive HDD enclosures, 4k displays, external 10GigE network cards etc.
Not sure what that would have 'solved'. Apple doesn't supply every single possible peripheral for other ports. Why should Thunderbolt be any different. They don't do it on OS X or iOS ports.
Apple using megabucks to cover everything is far more likely to suppress the growth of the TB peripheral ecosystem than enable it over the long term. Apple would be competing with the peripheral partners.
All they ended up doing instead is releasing a bunch of thunderbolt to XYZ cables.
Revisionist history. The dongles were the
last Thunderbolt non-system products Apple came out with.
2011 TB docking station display
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/15/thunderbolt-displays-shipping-to-customers/
2012 TB dongles
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/08/0...firewire-adapter-rolling-out-in-online-store/
The primary point of Thunderbolt is the first, not the trailing edge products.
With the immanent release of the nMP I can't help but feel that Apple has painted itself into a corner.
Start Thunderbolt roll out almost 3 years in advance and then release new Mac Pro. Would a bigger ecosystem be "safer"? Sure.... painted into a corner with no options. Not really.
If there is any "corner" Apple has painted themselves into it is having one and only one docking station display for the Mac Pro priced at $999. There are going to be more than a few Mini and Mac Pro users that need something a bit more affordable than that. Painted into a corner minimally even with the $999 only monitor in that it is at least one year stale at this point. The screen too glossy , the USB ports too old , etc.
The other corner is/was sleeping and snoring on a Mac Pro product management solution so long that the product was so old it had to be withdrawn from the EU market... That is a corner problem that Apple inflicted upon itself.
The only connectivity an expansion the nMBP has is thunderbolt,
The dual Ethernet ports and USB ports don't connect to anything... OK sure. (not). Highest speed expansion? Yes. Expansion period? No.
and there are only a few niche products.
You were expecting TB keyboards and TB mice? Thunderbolt was never design or intended to cover everything terminating solely on TB. It was always going to be a subset of peripherals that it covered. Connecting wider array of devices to that TB product was the primary design target.
I was hoping and I think Apple was hoping third party companies would step in with a wide range of solutions, but this doesn't seem to be happening.
It is happening but just not in some frenetic 49er, gold rush fashion. Intel has gated the flow of vendors into TB products. They were trying to avoid a race-to-the-bottom on quality and price that would hobble a new connectivity standard without an established track record. That was probably a wise move.
In fact there are tons of thunderbolt products that were paraded around last year's trade shows that I would like to have, but the majority of proposed thunderbolt products seem to have been canceled likely because the manufacturers saw that nobody cared.
In 2013 Intel ( perhaps with Apple input) shot themselves in the foot. Few vendors are going to want to come out with TB v1 products when Intel is going to spend most ( March-Nov) hyping TB v2 which Intel isn't going to supply in volume until Jan-Feb 2014.
It is not going to be surpring to see many vendors show up at CES 2014 with same TB products only tweaked for TB v2 and this time release because Intel isn't going to hype some TB v3 for most of 2014.
The targeted TB controller for 2013 added primarily DisplayPort v1.2 support ( getting folks ramped up for a more robust support of "4K video" in TB v2). Some minor cost drops but alot of the additional DP v1.2 support work vendors would have to do would be needed for TB v2 any. More than likely several vendors have waited until can weave the value add TB v2 in along with the increased overhead of the DP v1.2 support.
Acer loudly grumbled about TB and dropped out. But that is as much about Acer having screwed up in general ( CEO was dismissed for poor performance a couple months later) as it was about Thunderbolt. TB isn't about the bottom, razor margins where Acer tends to hang out.
USB 3.1 FUD likely put a damper on 2013 TB adoption also. Not only is TB v2 ("just around the corner") , USB 3.1 is coming too. While TB and USB don't largely overlap they do compete for the same set of limited PCI-e lanes (at least until USB 3.1 moved into core chipsets which is likely 2 years out if not later. ). The reality of USB 3.1 showing up with plans with new sockets and the real constraints will sort out TB vs USB selections in new designs over time.
It seems like Thunderbolt isn't gaining adoption without Apple backing it with peripherals.
Apple making peripherals just for Apple products isn't going to move the overall PC peripheral market when it is single digits of the overall market. The 90+ % is going to more the majority of that market.
Apple dropped 10-12M Thunderbolt capable systems onto the market the last 2 years. That is stimulative to the TB economical, but isn't magical in impact but it hardly a small contribution. If there are delayed gap problems it is far more on the Apple system software side than in Apple labeled hardware. ( that and being Scrooge McDuck with the investment pool they have available. Apple spends money on enabling higher production in some Chinese chop shop but can't fund innovative TB products to market. )
