Apple should just sell the cables at cost (or near-cost) so that they maximize adoption of Thunderbolt. They can make money elsewhere and therefore afford not to profit, but they would gain better adoption in the long-run.
> Our telecom source noted that Intel made an unusual choice in also using active cabling for future optical-based iterations of Thunderbolt. Passive cabling is more common, but active cabling could offer some advantages. For one, active cables could combine fiber optics with electrical cabling for power transmission. Another good reason to use active optical cables, according to our source, "is that your current electrical ports can be forward compatible with future optical cables."