It’s taken a while, but Apple is finally selling its own Thunderbolt 3 USB-C cables in the Apple Store. The company introduced MacBook Pro models that exclusively used USB-C over a year ago, with support for the faster Thunderbolt 3 data transfer standard. But when Apple released all of its USB-C dongles and accessories with the MacBooks, one thing was conspicuously missing: an actual Apple Thunderbolt 3 cable.
Apple makes USB-C to USB-C cables already, but those only transfer data at USB 2.0 speeds and are generally meant more for charging than data. So customers have been stuck with third-party cables for Thunderbolt 3, like the $29.99 Belkin one that Apple has stocked for the last year-plus.
Why Apple didn’t just include Thunderbolt 3 cables from the start instead of making two virtually identical-looking cables with vastly different data transfer capabilities — and why it isn’t including the new cable with MacBook Pro purchases going forward — is more unclear. Still, if you’ve been looking for an official Apple option, now you have one.
