Why Apple bought Beats? Forbes guess...

[eustacetilley]

RAMd®d wrote:
I'm familiar with the Thunderbolt port on Macs.

The Lightning port on the 'Phone and 'Pad is also knows as a Thunderbolt port?

If your referring to my post, it should state:
"The Lightning Port, (Like Thunderbolt), as currently designed,..." (For some reason, I can't edit this time.)
They are both essentially Apple/Intel standards; Apple/Intel makes, contracts out or licenses the hardware bits.
They are both bi-directional serial data highways and they both support supplying power.
Whereas Lightning is loosely based on USB2, Thunderbolt is a joint Apple/Intel development of the old VESA DisplayPort, with all the DRM crap built-in, among other things.

Lightning is a stopgap, whereas Thunderbolt has a lot of legs, especially as optical comes into play.
It was no mistake that Apple named their two ports Thunderbolt and Lightning; the two standards will probably officially converge at some point. (There are already Lightning to HDMI adapters, and Thunderbolt to HDMI adapters, but no Lightning/Thunderbolt adapters...)

So to make it clear, at this time, the Lightning connector is not Thunderbolt. By the time that the ThunderBowler is on the market, it may be.

Eustace.