Due to the backlash from avid consumers, Apple has decided to reduce the price of its 2 meter long Thunderbolt cable down from the original set price of $49, to $39. In addition, Apple released a shorter 0.5 meter Thunderbolt cable for $29, which is better suitable for use with external Thunderbolt hard drives and other portable peripherals. High-speed Thunderbolt cables are considerably more expensive than Apple's USB and Lightning cables because they require more processing power using high-quality copper cabling, and a total of four different processing chips on either end.