Apparently Intel made Apple a deal they couldn't refuse but saying that they have exclusive marketing on Thunderbolt technology through 2012:
During Intel’s Thunderbolt press conference this morning, while showing off some of the great new features of this technology including its Swiss Army like functionality with other types of I/O devices, it was revealed that Apple would be the only computer manufacturer with this technology until 2012. According to Intel, Thunderbolt boards will not be added to existing computers by an expansion card as Thunderbolt chips need direct access to both the systems video and PCI express architectures.
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/thunder...-then-20110225/I'm thinking that having an exclusive on something makes it expensive to buy things to connect to it. Kind of like how expensive firewire stuff is opposed to more run of the mill USB technology. I'm sure that the competition will come up with something just as fast or faster within the next year and with market share being what it is it will become the more accepted "standard."
