???? – 2016retired
Autodesk Softimage
“It modeled worlds for film and games, then quietly signed off. Good night, XSI.”
“One cable, one gorgeous panel, and six years of staring past your work at your wallpaper.”
The Apple Thunderbolt Display was a 27-inch monitor sold from July 2011 to June 2016, replacing Apple's 27-inch Cinema Display at $999. It packed a 720p webcam, speakers, a microphone, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, a downstream Thunderbolt port, and three USB 2.0 ports into one handsome slab. For Mac users, it was the desk: one cable, everything connected.
Apple discontinued it in June 2016 without a direct successor, briefly partnering with LG on UltraFine displays for consumers while the Pro Display XDR arrived for pros in 2019. Not even the Studio Display of 2022 — the first Apple-branded consumer display since — could arrive without fans noting the long gap. A display that only spoke Thunderbolt, and never Mini DisplayPort, went out on its own stubborn terms.
Spotted something wrong? Every fact on this page traces to a dated source. Fixes make the graveyard better for everyone.
“It modeled worlds for film and games, then quietly signed off. Good night, XSI.”
“It gave the iPhone a wardrobe. The fun one in the lineup, dressed in every color at once.”
“The best-selling iPhone ever — it grew up, got bigger, and so did we”