Apple Eyes 4K Desktop Displays With Next Generation Thunderbolt

From DailyTech: With Google Inc.'s (GOOG) new "Pixel" Chromebooks beating Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) premium laptops in the pixels-per-inch (ppi) arms race, Apple is reportedly pondering releasing 4K Thunderbolt 2 displays for sometime in 2014. 4K (typically referring to 3840x2160 pixel displays) was a hot item at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. While many argue it's an exercise in impracticality, others salivate at the super-sharp televisions, which are starting to trickle out onto the market this year.

Intel Corp. (INTC) recently showed off a demo called "Thunderbolt Technology Update", which is basically a second-generation Thunderbolt solution. The next generation Thunderbolt is capable of piping "4K video file transfer and display simultaneously."

Marco Armanet, co-founder of Tumblr and founder of Instapaper, writes in his blog:

"This could enable the first generation of desktop Retina displays: it wouldn’t surprise me if the first standalone Retina display was a 23” panel with exactly 4K resolution (3840?×?2160), run logically as 1920?×?1080 (1080p) at 2X, and driven by upgraded Thunderbolt ports in the next generation of MacBook Pros and Mac Pros."

Mr. Armanet is an avid iOS developer and Apple analyst.

Apple has also long been rumored to be developing a "smart" LCD TV. If such a product is released in the next couple years, a 4K panel is a likely inclusion.

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