Last week, rumors that Apple will soon refresh its MacBook Pro got fresh legs with the news that Intel has begun shipping second-generation Thunderbolt controller chips. Taken together with their earlier announcement that Ivy Bridge silicon, which is expected to power Cupertino’s next-gen computers, will be publicly released at the end of the month has Mac fans salivating.

However, the good news doesn’t end there. Intel’s PC Client Group vice president Kirk Skaugen is also promising that 100 third-party Thunderbolt devices will be available by year’s end with several times that number due in 2013.

“We have dozens already in the marketplace, things like storage devices. But we’re actually on track to deliver approximately a hundred different devices by the end of the year, and by the time we get into 2013, hundreds of different Thunderbolt devices,” Skaugen said.

To date, high controller prices have limited third-party device availability and appeal. Further, Windows PC vendors don’t yet offer Thunderbolt as a standard, motherboard-level feature.

Will Thunderbolt ever really get traction in the market?

via PC & Tech Authority, AppleInsider