HP chooses USB 3.0 over Thunderbolt

PC World is reporting that the world's largest computer manufacturer has chosen USB 3.0 over Intel's Thunderbolt port in its new desktop PCs. HP's worldwide desktop marketing manager told PC World that "We did look at [Thunderbolt]. We're still looking into it. Haven't found a value proposition yet."

Haven't found a value proposition yet? To put it in fantasy geek terms, Thunderbolt is the one port to rule them all. You can connect anything from hard drives to displays on one connection and even daisy-chain multiple Thunderbolt devices together. To top it off, a Thunderbolt port is smaller than a USB 3.0 port, at least twice as fast as USB 3.0 and, theoretically, has the potential for four times the throughput of USB 3.0.

I understand that HP is considering that there are already 6 billion USB devices on the market, but is it really that hard to add a Thunderbolt port to new desktops in order to help speed adoption of a superior technology? HP's decision to use older technology is an example of why no one will ever mistake it for a hardware company that moves the industry forward. Excluding Thunderbolt isn't just a failure of envisioning where computers are headed; it slows overall adoption of a superior technology, which means we'll see fewer Thunderbolt accessories hit the market. That's unfortunate, because consumers deserve the best technology available.