They’re all sending digital information, but only data cables like USB/Thunderbolt can be used (as far as I know) for devices like external drives. I am not aware of any external drive that can be connected by HDMI or DisplayPort.
In: Technology
The quick answer is that different devices have different needs, so it was easier to make a specific cable for every need. For example a monitor requires a very high speed data transfer, a usb device needs both data and power, a mouse doesn’t need a lot of data but it requires a low delay to be useful.
On top of that, the different ports were developed by different companies and each of them thinks that their format is the best. So they make their port incompatible with the others or ask for huge fees to use their format.
Now that there is a stronger push for standardization between formats, the usb-c can handle displays, hard disk, and almost any device that needs to exchange data and companies are starting to adopt it. (Except apple?)
The part about about the device needs still remains: you have only one shape of port but you need different cables depending on what you want. For example: some usb-c cables support power delivery and some others not.
Even usb-c ports are different. On laptop is common to have a usb-c port that only supports charging, one that supports a video stream, one that supports normal devices…
Latest Answers