Intel and Apple should market Thunderbolt not as a peripheral interconnect designed to compete with USB but an external PCI format designed to let you connect PCIe style devices (video cards/displays, RAID cards, realtime AV, docking stations, specialty or future ports -- USB3? 6Gbit eSATA? Fibre Channel, 10Gig Ethernet) to laptops, tablets, all-in-ones, etc.
These probably aren't completely mainstream needs (is USB3 even a mainstream need though?) but they represent things that can only be done with traditional form factor PCs now. Why buy a Mac Pro when the only thing holding you back from a compact low power mini or laptop is some port you can only get a on PCI card?
These probably aren't completely mainstream needs (is USB3 even a mainstream need though?) but they represent things that can only be done with traditional form factor PCs now. Why buy a Mac Pro when the only thing holding you back from a compact low power mini or laptop is some port you can only get a on PCI card?