[ckluis]

Partially agree. I assume Apple wants to go down the truly portable route and offer an addon graphics card in the size and shape of either an airport extreme or apple tv/mini. This would allow someone with a mini to stack a graphics card under it and have the graphics card inbetween the mini & any other screen.

[Shivetya]

I am/was hoping thunderbolt would provide me the equivalent of a docking station set up for Apple laptops. Hooking up one cable is an acceptable alternative to a docking station. My last Apple laptop setup required four plug ins, monitor, power, keyboard, and mouse. Yeah I know I could wireless the mouse/keyboard but that isn't the point.

[jfb]

Apple already sells a Thunderbolt docking station, with a very nice 27" display built in.

[roc]

Personally I think baking the GPU power into the displays themselves is the more Apple-y approach. As opposed to some sort of additional-stackable-boxes solution.

(Which I'd love to see; I just don't see Apple doing it.)

[grecy]

> Personally I think baking the GPU power into the displays themselves is the more Apple-y approach.

I don't agree.

Any Monitor with built in GPU won't make sense with the new Mac Pro, which (I think) will be the driving force for the new (likely 4K) Thunderbolt cinema displays.

[roc]

But without the GPU what Apple machines other than Mac Pros will decently drive a 4k display? [1]

Apple's left the Pro line to languish for so long, I can't imagine they'd let it limit their ability to differentiate in the larger display business.

[1] And of those upgraded MBPs that could hit 4k aren't going to be able to do it on two displays, which is quite popular.

[barrkel]

GPUs become obsolete way faster than monitors.

[roc]

Are you trying to say Apple wouldn't put GPUs in displays because it might accelerate the display upgrade cycle?

[barrkel]

I'm trying to say that customers aren't quite stupid enough to invest in a display that they'll throw out 18 months later.

[tsmarsh]

It would be great if that docking station optionally included an awesome GPU. In the mean time, daisy chaining something like this on to the back looks very interesting.

[dmix]

> monitor, power, keyboard, and mouse

+ sound

Although I use USB hub so 1x usb.

[duaneb]

> addon graphics card in the size and shape of either an airport extreme or apple tv/mini

Wouldn't the latency remove any substantial merit?

[akandiah]

Sony has done this in the past. The add-on wasn't cheap.