Belkin Upgrades Thunderbolt Express Dock with USB 3.0 and eSATA, Bumps Price to $399.99

850$ for a refurb Thunderbolt Display is sounding like a really good deal now. Or if Apple refreshes the Mini with two Thunderbolt ports, that will be another good option. But 400$$$ that better come with a 2TB HD and cable. Goodness

Digital Skunk said:

I wouldn't go that far.

The $300 was a very nice price for it to be honest. TBolt is still going to ask for a premium price given the age of the tech. Now, add in eSATA, FW800, USB3.0, an additional TBolt port and $300 isn't bad at all.

The LaCie eSATA hub is $250 for just two TBolts and two eSATA ports. $50 more and you get a splattering of connections. Now, price it at $400 and you are just asking for users to find cheaper alternatives.

The TBolt, SSD, and other non-mainstream tech will come down in price as they become more mainstream. Besides,

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i disagree - because, really, how many people (percentage wise) will require such a device? pro-sumers, more or less. sub 1% market share of total mac users (and maybe a few idiots that dont _really_ need it?)....

i mean honestly, it's already $1,000+ for even a small TB enclosure, then this, then your TB displays, yada - it's another mac (which i'd rather have!)

Don't flame. I don't really understand the purpose of these docking stations... (and thunderbold in general really) simply to add more USB and other ports? What needs to be connected? Professional peripherals and accessories? And why is thunderbolt so necessary? I know it transfers data much faster, but unless you are transfering GB of data what's the point? What difference does a thunderbolt display even make? It's not going to display the monitor any faster or anything...

Don't just say "obviously this product isn't for you". I would actually like to learn the purpose.

Digital Skunk said:

I wouldn't go that far.

The $300 was a very nice price for it to be honest. TBolt is still going to ask for a premium price given the age of the tech. Now, add in eSATA, FW800, USB3.0, an additional TBolt port and $300 isn't bad at all.

The LaCie eSATA hub is $250 for just two TBolts and two eSATA ports. $50 more and you get a splattering of connections. Now, price it at $400 and you are just asking for users to find cheaper alternatives.

The TBolt, SSD, and other non-mainstream tech will come down in price as they become more mainstream. Besides,

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Perhaps killing it is going to far, but it will never be anything more then FW400/800 at these prices.

If Apple adds USB 3 this year to the Mac lineup then Thunderbolt is all but dead to the average consumer that Apple targets.

Dell Ultrasharp 27" Monitor $899, Belkin dock $399. Total of $1298.

Apple Thunderbolt Display with dock $999. Easy choice, nice design, good screen! Belkin really needs to rethink their pricing!

So this doesn't have a HDMI port anymore? I was really hoping I could use the HDMI port, and connect a display via the TB/mDP out...

Dammit...

I want this product. I'd love the ability to plug in all of my peripherals with one cable and take advantage of USB 3 while the cost of Thunderbolt drives are still too high. This even looks significantly better than the other TB docks we've seen.

Then there's the price...

At $250 I'd probably have bit the bullet and bought one for my girlfriend and I. As it stands there is no way in hell I could justify this purchase even if I was willing to pay it. Add that it doesn't even come with the cable and it becomes laughable.

It was too expensive at $300... now they want $400 + $45 for a cable?

I do not understand this product at all. It's just an unfinished computer! The price is almost there, and it has the ports of a modern computer, but the makers left out the screen, HDD/SSD, CPU, GPU, RAM, keyboard, and mouse.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?

"Belkin Upgrades..."?

Was the first version shipping yet? Are any of these shipping, yet? Besides Apple's display.

$100 max!!

They should fire whoever came up with that price. People are not going to pay that.

Laughable pricing. I hope they make millions of these expecting them to sell like hotcakes but only end up shifting about 10.

Reading trough the comments so far, it sounds like Apple is going to sell a couple more Thunderbolt Displays

Thunderbolt

I understand new technology is going to be pricey, but this is ridiculous. How about making something smaller like a thunderbolt to 3 port usb 3.0 hub? I mean I would drop around $100 bucks on a thunderbolt accessory - but whats the point of thunderbolt if its going to take 5 years for accessories to be affordable?

I wonder if the $399 is the MSRP and it'll be less than that on the street?

Time will tell, but at this time Thunderbolt is looking like a bag of hurt.

This is why I hate thunderbolt, ALL of its accessories/drives are too expensive. I hope the next Macbooks have USB 3.0!

D.T. said:

$299 +with+ the USB 3.0 ports would’ve been a decent price/port/performance ratio (not factoring in the eSATA addition).

~$450 with the cable factored in? Heck, I’ll just take a 27” TB display for another $550.

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Viewing some of the other prices for various 27" monitor models, if you purchased an 27" Apple thunderbolt display, aren't you basically already doing that?
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Design

The price issue is one BIGGIE, but on another side, has anyone really studied the Design of this thing? Why would I want a TB cable sticking out the front of this thing on my desk. I mean really couldn't this port be put in the back with the rest of the cable ports. I really think that the astectic design of this monister is very poor in real world use on a desk.

I personally think that TB docks and storage should be cheaper to really battle wit cloud storage.

Come on guys, I mean we just spent nothing less than 1000 in dollars or Quid
in one way or the other

and u want us to shell out $399.99 ..............sorry but u aint branded

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Let me explain. The value of thunderbolt is to have the bandwidth to run multiple monitors without USB adapters, which no one has introduced yet. I don't mind plugging in a couple of extra cables, but I won't even have to, just with USB 2.

I already hub all my peripherals through a cheap USB hub. I will be getting another one, and in my future setup, two of my monitors, my external drives, a DAC for audio out, and an 802.11ac adapter will all be running off of USB, so I will be getting the same functionality for a fraction of the price.

I guess this thing would sort of help me out with the extra monitors by allowing the use of USB 3, but $400 for this thing (grab the cable from Monoprice for $5) just isn't worth it to un-bottleneck USB.

Of course, it's a nice option to have if I tap both 480mbps USB ports, and they are still too bottlenecked, but I'm hoping something cheaper comes along. Heck, taking the network off of USB and using a gigabit to 802.11ac bridge would be cheaper than this too.

I can see this being useful for a very small subset of people who really need external disk bandwidth for video editing and other digital content creation, but for the other 99%, a USB hub or two will do the trick for a lot less.

UGH! At this price it should include FireWire 800 and two Thunderbolt connections.

ghostface147 said:

I'm still waiting for a company to have a thunderbolt portable hard drive. None of those expensive raid arrays, just a simple 1 terabyte drive I can use for time machine.

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Forget it. As soon as the Mac supports USB3, everyone is going to forget about Thunderbolt as a hard drive standard especially for single disks.

Simplicated said:

Really, who pays $400 for a hub without a cable included, which brings the total price to at least $450.

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Someone who already owns the $50 cable?