We've often wondered how long it would take companies to finally start adopting USB 3.0 en masse. It's been a couple of years now, and SuperSpeed ports are still few and far between. It's not like the USB standard stands any chance of being neglected, so what's the holdup? Well, these things always take time, and implementation is always easier said than done. But Lenovo, a major player in the notebook and desktop market, now thinks that next year is "the year." What do we mean? 2012 will be the year that USB 3.0 becomes "the norm."

Jason Parrish, worldwide product manager for Lenovo ThinkPad, told C|NET the following: "In 2012 USB 3.0 will be a mainstream technology. And we see 2011 as the transition year for USB 3.0 as it starts to come into more and more products." We don't doubt it. Many newly announced laptops are indeed showing up with USB 3.0 on the build sheet, but there's still a long way to go before it totally replaces USB 2.0. Intel's chipsets will probably push adoption along with they start supporting USB 3.0 natively in 2012.


What does Lenovo think of Thunderbolt? They're "evaluating it," looking at customer needs and making determinations based on that. Obviously, space comes at a premium on notebooks, so if there's no overwhelming demand for Thunderbolt, you'll probably see it skipped over on Lenovo machines, at least. But we can all agree that USB 3.0 is the future, and a future that many will be looking forward to adopting soon. Now, if every other PC maker would just drink whatever Kool-Aid Lenovo has been, we'd be in high-speed heaven!