Neil Hughes
Shipping times for Apple's Thunderbolt Display have slipped across Europe, once again conjuring up hopes that a new model with 5K Retina display could be in the works.
European shoppers at the Apple online store now have an 8-day wait for new Thunderbolt Display orders to arrive in many countries. The delay was first publicized by Macerkopf.de.
In contrast, new Thunderbolt Display purchases elsewhere in the world, including the U.S. and Canada, remain widely available, with overnight delivery and in-store pickup.
Apple last updated its in-house external display product in 2011. In the years since, inventory of the Thunderbolt Display has dwindled on multiple occasions.
Inventory reduction and associated extended shipping times are frequently a sign that Apple is preparing to launch a new model. But as evidenced by past stock-outs of the Thunderbolt Display, this latest shipping delay may not amount to much.
Apple already sells a 27-inch Retina display panel as part of its larger iMac with 5K-resolution screen, packing in 14.7 million pixels. In contrast, the standard-resolution Thunderbolt Display has a resolution of 2,560 by 1,440, or about 3.7 million pixels.
A Retina Thunderbolt Display would be of particular interest to users of Apple's cylindrical Mac Pro. Apple itself has been selling alternative displays, like the 4K IGZO Sharp LED monitor, for those customers.
For the best alternatives to Apple's outdated Thunderbolt Display, see AppleInsider's comprehensive roundup.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
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Malcolm Owen
20 Comments
This is likely because the latest Thunderbolt 3 spec only supports up to DisplayPort 1.2. 5k monitors require DisplayPort 1.3 to work with a single cable. You can use 3rd party 5k monitors now on the latest systems, but it requires a computer and graphics card with two available ports and two cables. Thunderbolt 4 I believe was rumored to come out mid to late 2016 to line up with Display 1.4, using that spec instead, and supporting up to 8k monitors. That's probably what they're waiting for.
Actually Thunderbolt 3 makes it possible to run 5K monitor with single cable using Multi-Stream Transport and DisplayPort 1.2.
Sigh... we can only hope.
In addition to a 5k display, I'd hope new Mac Pros would also be forthcoming.
And just to be really nuts, I'd hope that new Mac Pros with the option for 2 CPUs and 1 GPU (in addition to the current 1 CPU and 2 GPUs) might be available.
But I'm not holding my breath.
I honestly don't think Apple sells enough monitors to bother with a refresh. This is. Why they are selling third party monopitora for the Mac Pro.