Great news for us musicians on the PC side of things:
 
Intel finally had enough of Apple's shenanigans with their proprietary Thunderbolt connector that produced little revenue for the microprocessor giant. The introduction of Thunderbolt 3 which is uses as bypass via the new USB-C connector, pretty much cuts Apple out of the loop (for those that didn't know Intel owned the patents on the bus technology of Thunderbolt formerly called lightpeak, Apple only owned the connector piece).  This new connector is already showing up on hundreds of new PC's just being introduced in the market, and within the next 3 years it will be as ubiquitous as all the other USB standards are.
 
One port to rule them all!
 
USB-C will allow you to connect Thunderbolt 1 and 2 devices via an adapter, and many of the interface manufacturers are already working on Windows drivers for their Thunderbolt products.
 
Future proofing as this new USB port will be used as a charge port, it will come on smartphones, tablets, and PC's, and supports USB, Thunderbolt 1/2, PCI Express and Display Port standards.
 
These ports are already showing up on new PC's, across multiple manufacturers.
 
This is a win for consumers and giving people a choice and will give us musicians on the PC side of things access to all kinds of new interfaces that were previously Apple only.  Focusrite's Clarett line of Thunderbolt interfaces is already going to release Windows Beta drivers.
 
 

following all this hoopla i would just say that anyone considering a laptop with USB-C look very carefully at the reviews and comments on the interconnectivity with USB-C , or more accurately, the lack thereof...
 
There are minimal options for docking stations, and none of them work well... 
 
 
 

We've discussed Win10 having full "PCIe via Thunderbolt" support in numerous threads here on the Cakewalk forums.

• You have to be running Win10
• You need one of the latest Z170x or X99p motherboards that provide Thunderbolt-3 via a USB-C port
• You need a USB-C to Thunderbolt-2 (often just called Thunderbolt) adapter (~$84)

If you have the above in place, you need true "PCIe via Thunderbolt" drivers from the audio interface manufacturer.
MOTU is currently the only audio interface manufacturer that has true PCIe via Thunderbolt drivers available for PC.
 
With "PCIe via Thunderbolt", performance is on par with using a PCIe based interface.
 
If you're talking about connected drives via Thunderbolt, that quickly gets expensive.
ie:  A 1TB conventional HD in a Thunderbolt enclosure is ~$200.
 
 
 
 

Mainly I was saying that Thunderbolt as a port (what Apple designed and owned) is essentially dead.  People need to understand that Thunderbolt 3 has nothing to do with Apple anymore (other than they are using it on the new MacBook Air).  Thunderbolt 3 is now Intel parnered with USB (as 3.1 or USB-C).  Thunderbolt 3 is paired with USB 3.1, but some computers with USB-C will not be Thunderbolt 3, probably adding to some confusion.
 
Yes you will need an adapter and yes MOTU is currently the only one supporting it, but within the next year or so, all interface manufactuers except the ones already proprietary to Apple (Apogee, Apollo), will start supporting Windows.
 
In the future if interface manufactures write to TB 3 there will be no need for an adapter.  Currently I think the TB interfaces are TB1.
 
The TB arrays and displays are a niche market, but USB-C type higher speed drives will be available and will probably come in at a much lower price point.
 
As I said USB-C is the future of USB and it replaces the need for micro-USB, and you will see this on phones, tablets, laptops etc.
 
For those buying a new machine I'd be wary of having one that only has USB-C connectors, but it's a no-brainer to consider buying a new machine that at least has one, and some USB 3.0 ports.