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Macworld's David Dahlquist reports on how Apogee and other companies are gearing up for the integration of Thunderbolt technology in his article, "Peripheral makers get ready for Thunderbolt". 

Excerpt (posted on Macworld.com on February 26, 2011):

...Digital audio company Apogee Electronics also hasn’t announced Thunderbolt products, but when contacted by Macworld, Apogee’s director of marketing Sean McArthur and design engineer Lucas Van Der Mee did little to conceal their enthusiasm toward the new technology.

“Our catchphrase for this kind of technology is ‘connectivity without compromise,’ and we feel like (Thunderbolt) really breaks down a lot of barriers in the pro audio industry,” McArthur said. “What’s really great about the Thunderbolt technology is that it kind of takes the confusion out of what is the professional connectivity standard going forward. People are looking at USB 3.0, and FireWire 800 and the PCI-E cards, but now we all know, and we can move forward swiftly with [Thunderbolt’s] incredible performance.”

Added Van Der Mee: “What we like so much about it is the incredible bandwidth that it provides, along with this enormous simplicity, like the simplicity of FireWire and USB. But now you have this amazing bandwidth, which makes it just a fabulous solution.”

Apogee’s flagship audio interface, the Symphony I/O, is a high-end platform with a modular design that will allow Apogee to incorporate Thunderbolt technology into the device without having to redesign the product—a prospect, McArthur noted, that Apogee is looking into and will announce in due time.

McArthur also touched on Thunderbolt’s potential to revolutionize the portable recording field.

“It makes portability a reality for really high-end systems,” he said. “You could be recording with 32 or 64 channels, with a single cable connected to a laptop. That for us, is revolutionary, and we’re very excited.”

To read the entire article, please go to: http://www.macworld.com/article/158168/2011/02/thunderboltreaction.html.