If after seeing like on November 17, 2008 USB 3.0 standard announced To give way to speeds close to 5Gbps, it is now that this standard has undergone an evolution and not exactly a small one, since although a priori it seems like a minor revision, the bandwidth has been increased by no less than double.
Now the question comes when we compare this with Thunderbolt, so far the speed of this protocol was still superior to USB, but with this new version just announced, the balance is balanced in terms of specifications but always keeping in mind that everything that surrounds the USB standard is much more widespread and what is almost more important, also cheaper.
Although the second version of Thunderbolt with 20Gbps bandwidth is just around the corner, it does not tell us much about its future either since for now only the new Mac Pro will integrate it and who knows if it will be extended more than the original version has, but if Apple withdraws it their support would be quickly forgotten since they cannot always be supporting this technology when it is so minority, reminding me of the case of Firewire.
I believe and I hope I am wrong, that Thunderbolt has long been sentenced seeing the unstoppable push of a technology with inferior characteristics but that in the end is much more profitable for manufacturers and more affordable for the end user and that will soon ostracize Thunderbolt leaving it only for a very minority group of users.
More information - New details on Intel's possible handheld Thunderbolt 2