Today's the last day to get discounted USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 accessories

By Rene Ritchie
published

Since November, Apple has cut the price of their USB-C adapters by up to half, third party USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 peripherals they sold by 25%, and SanDisk's USB-C SD card reader by 40% — all in an effort to ease the pain of pro customers with legacy peripherals upset by Apple's rapid move to USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 exclusivity on the 2016 MacBook Pro. But your time is running out: Today, March 31, is the last day to pick up discounted accessories.

Not included are Apple's USB-C power adaptors or the USB-C Charge Cable (2m), but a variety of third-party accessories are also discounted at Apple Online and at Apple Stores.

Either way, it's obvious Apple firmly believes this is the future of the Mac laptop, and the price drops are a olive branch and bridge to those still bound to present-day accessories.

If you're an aspiring MacBook Pro owner — or existing and opportunistic MacBook owner for the USB-C drops! — jump on them ASAP.

MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro with M1

○ MacBook Pro with M1 Review
○ Macbook Pro with M1 FAQ
○ Touch Bar: The ultimate guide
○ MacBook forums
○ Buy at Apple (opens in new tab)

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

44 Comments
  • A welcome move except the whole MacBook Pro fiasco has made me reevaluate my computing needs. I've realised I do 90% of everything on my iPad Pro (with Logitech Create keyboard) and the rest can equally be done on Mac or PC, the PC being able to do stuff like gaming and VR too, so that's where my money is going. Too little, too late.
  • Good thing that Thunderbolt 3 allows you put whatever GPU you want on the machine if required for things like VR.
  • Until you want crossfire or sli.
  • Seems like an odd concession for a company that claims to have record orders for the new Macbook. Perhaps they also had a record number of cancellations?
  • Or, alternatively, maybe they are telling the truth, and they simply want to accelerate the growth of this new ecosystem. That record sales are still below their own expectations. That when they play chess they can see more than one move ahead, and so they can see that selling cables at a lower profit margin for a couple months is worth it to get even more USB-C devices (both computers and peripherals) in the hands of users as quickly as possible. Which is more likely: that Apple has unreasonably high standards for themselves, wants to push new technology, can play the long game, and is telling the truth? Or that none of these is true, and a record number of people saw the new MacBook Pro specs, ordered one, and then changed their minds and cancelled their orders? Based on the ship dates in the Apple store today, they're selling 15" MacBook Pros faster than they can produce them, so if you pick the latter, it means you also think Apple was lying about their initial production capacity. This is the company with perhaps the most impressive supply chain management in the world.
  • Same supply chain that after years of selling the iPhone still can’t get the demand right.
    GEDDOWDAVEEER!
  • There is a huge pent up demand for new MacBook Pros as they haven't been refreshed in quite a while. I'm in this boat, I'm using a maxed out 4 year old rMBP, but what I really wanted was a 32GB capable machine to give me room to grow for the next 4 years. I didn't get that so I'm sticking with what I have. I'm also looking at Windows / Linux alternatives because I'm concerned about Apple's obsession with "thin and light". I would much rather have a laptop with more ports and a pound of extra weight but clearly Apple doesn't want to offer that to "pro" users.
  • I ordered a MacBook Pro right as soon the Apple Store opened for business, as I'm overdue an upgrade and am excited about the touch bar, plus I could really do with 2TB storage for all my media files. Having to wait 2-3 weeks is giving me a chance to reevaluate my purchase though, and several times I've hovered over the cancel order button. I don't need thinner, my current top of the line 15" MBP is absolutely fine, and I don't mind replacing all my existing cables and dongles with USB-C ones. What I'm REALLY not happy about though is: loss of magsafe (which has saved my bacon on far more occasions than I care to think about), lack of a single USB-A socket for when I need to plug in USB flash drives, which I do frequently, and being limited to 16GB. Oh, and did I mention the lack of magsafe? At last count I have four chargers (one in the office, one in my study, one in the lounge, and one at my girlfriend's), all of which I suppose I have to replace too. I think I'll wait now for the stupid thing to turn up just to see what it's like, but I suspect there's a better than 50% chance that I'll be so irritated by not having a charger for it when I need it (assuming it hasn't already been yanked to the floor by then of course) that I'll return it within the first few weeks.
  • Oh I forgot, the keyboard! I'm really not looking forward to typing on a stupid cheap and plastic touch keyboard with no proper key travel, but I guess I'll wait and see what it's like in practice. And an oversize trackpad, where the old one is just fine. Again, I'll reserve judgment, people are saying it doesn't actually register spurious trackpad presses when you rest your palm while typing, but I'm certainly worried. Why oh why didn't Apple introduce two new laptops with touch bar? A new thinner lighter model for regular users who don't care about pro features, and a genuine "pro" model which is the same size as the current version and has room for extra memory, proper keyboard, more sockets, and so on?
  • I tried the keyboard with the butterfly mechanism on the new MacBook and I have to agree with you. I didn't like the feel. Some people seem to like it so perhaps in time I'll adapt. I feel that if Jobs is still running Apple we'll be getting 64GB RAM, better voice and 3D gesture recognition without any need for a touch bar and vouchers for free dongles as a good will for customers. He would have demanded and succeeded in getting Intel to bring forward their Kaby Lake Mobile CPU release schedule for the MacBook Pro line. Just saying.
  • It wouldn't have 64GB RAM, it's detailed in this article why the MacBook Pro doesn't have higher than 16GB: http://www.imore.com/why-doesnt-new-macbook-pro-have-32-gb-ram The only way it could have more than 16GB would be to greatly reduce the battery life, in which case it wouldn't be a MacBook, so no, Steve wouldn't have done this
  • Jobs is dead. Get over it. Either buy Apple stuff or don't buy. I, for once, am not interested in the new MBP. I'm very happy with the MBP 13" retina I bought three months ago. And even if Jobs was still alive we do not really know what his decision would be. Move on, guys.
  • I understand your dilemma with the cancel button. I ordered an iPhone 7 Plus, but after waiting 4-5 weeks for delivery, I returned it without opening it. I realized I'm fine with my iPhone 6. That was a $1000 purchase. Apple really should get their production together. As for your charger situation, why can't you carry your charger with you? Instead of having four.
  • "and I don't mind rep