<p> <i> 21.20  pm </i> For Thunderbolt and Lightning, USB-C is very, very frightening

The new MacBook represents Apple's vision for "the future of the notebook." That future is defined by thinness, lightness, and an almost total abandonment of external connectivity ports. Other than the mandatory headphone jack, there's just one port available on the MacBook: a USB Type-C connection that takes care of power, data transfers, and display output. Here's how Apple explains its choice of connector:

"As long as we were going to include a port for charging the new MacBook, we wanted to make sure it was the most advanced and versatile one available."

There was once a time when Apple saw the connected future built around a pair of boldly titled interconnects: Thunderbolt for laptops and desktop computers, and Lightning for its mobile iOS devices. But the company's pursuit of a completely wireless laptop now bodes poorly for the future of Thunderbolt and even casts some doubt over the long-term prospects of Lightning.

Co-developed by Intel and Apple and introduced in the 2011 MacBook Pro, Thunderbolt promised to be the thing that made us leave USB behind. In simple terms, Thunderbolt is a much fatter and faster pipe for data transfers than USB, and it makes it possible to connect big storage arrays and high-resolution displays to your MacBook. Some four years after its introduction, however, Thunderbolt is still narrowly focused on high-end applications and hasn't been adopted or aggressively promoted by many PC makers beyond Apple.

USB 3.1 with the smaller, reversible USB Type-C usurps the entire purpose of Thunderbolt cables for regular consumers. It lets you plug in your external hard drives — which make up the vast majority of the 50 Thunderbolt products on Apple's online store — and pushes video out to external displays. Type-C is easier to use than Thunderbolt and appears to be cheaper to implement, making it a no-brainer upgrade. Simple, less expensive, and still fast.

Apple is stridently asserting the new MacBook as its best MacBook ever, and its choice of interconnect is telling. The future, at least for mainstream consumers, is easy and convenient like USB instead of superpowered but expensive like Thunderbolt. The established high-end connector isn't going away immediately, as Apple used yesterday's event to also announce Thunderbolt 2 upgrades for the MacBook Air and Pro, but it will be swimming upstream to remain relevant in the face of an oncoming deluge of Type-C peripherals and devices.

The ubiquity of USB has already assisted in the demise of one Apple-led interconnect, FireWire, whose downfall began in similar fashion to today. FireWire was first phased out in 2008 in Apple's consumer laptops — which is exactly what the new MacBook is — and then disappeared from the Pro lineup within four years. Coincidentally, it was Thunderbolt that stepped into FireWire's place as the solution for high-speed connection needs.

Fat Thunderbolt connectors will never be used to connect or charge your phone, but that's what the new USB cable can do, and mobile devices like the Nokia N1 tablet are already adopting it. I suspect we'll see USB-C embraced widely and quickly, with it serving to replace Micro USB cables for phones and simplifying many people's lives.</p>