![Apple Drops Prices on USB-C Cables and Adapters to Ease the Pain of Transition [Update: 5K and 4K Displays, Too]](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/large-16-9/s3/lead/2016/11/apple-usb-c-cable-adapter-discount_jpg.webp)
For better or worse, Apple ditched almost every port on its latest MacBook Pro lineup, opting instead for a single audio jack and four Thunderbolt 3 ports with the new USB-C connector. While there are inherent advantages to such a setup, it is true that users will need to invest in a series of adapters to connect their devices. Starting today, through December 31, nearly all of Apple's adapters and cables featuring USB-C are discounted 24-52 percent, depending on the cable.
Charging cables and power adapters are left out of the discounted items, but nearly all the other adapters for Lightning, A/V, and other connections.
Apple is also discounting some third-party USB-C accessories sold through its stores, such as SanDisk's USB-C SD card reader, which is now $29, down from $49. If you've ever been cable or adapter shopping, you know these discounts are quite good. Quality cable options are usually overpriced, but these discounts bring prices down to something closer to what most would find completely acceptable.
It's unclear whether or not customers who already purchased these now-discounted adapters and cables can benefit from the discounts, but considering they haven't been available for that much time and Apple's relatively reasonable return policy, there's a high likelihood that these discounts can be retroactive if customers make an inquiry.
Do these discounts change your mind about the new MacBook Pro or Apple as a company, or is this a cheap ploy to try and tempt you into agreeing with dropping ports you loved?
UPDATE: According to 9to5Mac.com in a new article, Apple also discounted the brand new LG UltraFine 5K and 4K displays that feature Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. The displays now cost $974 and $524, respectively, down from $1,299 and $699.
UPDATE 2: Some people who ordered these now-discounted cables from Apple before these temporary discounts, such as our own Andrew Richardson, who shared the image below, are now receiving emails notifying them of automatic partial refunds for the difference in price.
[via 9to5Mac]
I think when Apple does stuff like this or the iWatch it may be because Jobs was the only one with a vision and the magic is fading and Apple is on the glide path of becoming just another tech company. But they might find one of his old notebooks in the garage and there's a plan for something we didn;t know we needed...like an iPad ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No surprise here. I can only imagine people abandoning left and right if they price gouged on the adapters as well as the computer itself.
Sounds like a roundabout way of saying sales aren't going so well..
I'm not trying to fight for one side or the other, but just to answer your thought, they (Phil Schiller) did say Apple had more orders for the new MBPs than any other pro laptop they've made in the past: http://fortune.com/2016/11/02/apple-phil-schiller-macbook-pro/
So I doubt that's it...which makes me think maybe this is an honest attempt to just be nice. The limited timing of it makes this seem more likely as well. But who really knows?
when people talk of record orders, many think of consumer sales. I personally don't think that is the case. Initial orders are B2B, so vendors pre-ordered anticipating higher demand. Well see at the end of the month how many of those units are still sat in storerooms.
except majority of their sales run through their retail and online stores
@Adam Ottke.
As as writer for this website, we may expect a bit less biased opinions about stuff. You Apple fan-boyism is too clearly showing. That is a problem if you write for a website that isn't an Apple website.
As a writer for a website, you should be more neutral which you are clearly not. Everything Apple does seems to be holy to you and everything Microsoft invents is bad to you.
Wake up and start writing credible stories because as a writer, you are about as credible as a politician.
Your posts are about a mm away from being totally ridiculous.
He's and apple fan but I'm a Windows fan. Our posts have bias but we tend to cancel each other out.
I appreciate your comment, Pieter, and understand your concern. At Fstoppers, we write a number of different types of stories. Some are straight news pieces, and others are opinion pieces. We are, after all, a website by photographers, for photographers. When I write an opinion piece, I clearly label it as such with an appropriate tag indicating so.
In this respect, I do make my opinions quite clear. And because we are a blog and are bringing our professional photography experience into our considerations of various developments in the industry, we may write an opinion or two at the end of a news article to also ask for questions, comments, etc. -- and out of curiosity to see if others agree or disagree.
We all have a variety of opinions, here, as Lee pointed out. And we will continue to share them. But I will also continue to label my opinions as just that. I hope knowing this helps.
Don't worry; I'll jump in with a Linux article soon and really throw you off.
@ Adam Ottke Fair enough.
@Alex Cooke I doubt it. It's a few years since I used Linux for the last time but it was experimenting with it at the middle and end of the nineties, all through the first part of this century. I was using Linux when you were in diapers. It could make an older pc fly. An old pc in the nineties was everything older than a year. Things went fast in those days. But in these days, pc's last 4-5 years so there was no need to use it anymore.
When I buy a new MacBook Pro 2016, I do NOT want to transfer my images by an SD slot or USB, I use XQD cards and CF as well as my external drives being Thunderbolt, so do I want an old slow technology of USB and SD, The USB C is far better, and I would buy an adpater, more to the point why have we not got a Thunderbolt 2 and 3 QOD Reader, as this is the ultimate high end pro data product for Nikon and Video, Regards
It's about time all accessories went wireless. Why AREN'T monitors wireless?
are these usb-c ports the ultimate solution or just another half baked thunder bolts?? Will Apple in a year or so decide to replace them all with USB-X?
I need adaptor to tether my camera...I need adaptor for the DVD drive, for card reader, for external monitor, for connecting Wacom, for everything freaking device!
And the emoji bar is suck a joke. Maybe think of new ways of interactions? How about utilizing iPad and iPhone for those function keys? Just to give Apple some ideas as they seem to have none.
This is no MacBook Pro. This is MacBook Joke!