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Thunderbolt HD's wassup then

inscrewtable

inscrewtable

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 9, 2010
1,656
402
I thought TB was just going to be a new standard and after a year they'd be the same price as firewire drives. But here we are almost on the next gen imac and all there is is the lacie very expensive still hd and some even more expensive raids.

What's going on, is there some intrinsic reason that TB enclosures will always be much dearer than ordinary enclosers? It's even more galling now that usb 3 drives are dirt cheap.

Is there any reason that TB has not been added to HD docks yet. Some licensing expense or something?

any enlightenment appreciated.
 
Wow, that's great information. Thanks for taking the time to make such a valuable contribution to the macrumors forum. It's quality posts like yours... etc.
 
waloshin said:
There are many affordable thunderbolt drives now.
Click to expand...

That's interesting looks like they just came out.

What I'm mainly interested in is an external HD Dock. I've searched everywhere and there seem to be plenty of docks that have everything except thunderbolt ports.

I was wondering if there is some technical reason for this, does the TB port have particular problems in a dock? Or is there some license requirement that is hard to get?
 
It is mainly because most pc accessory companies are always afraid to jump on the bandwagon with new technology unless it is dirt cheap.

Look back at the history of USB, it took years before manufacturers started churning out products after it was introduced.

They want someone else to take the leap 1st, invest their time and money, then they follow and copy what has been done.
 
mmomega said:
...
They want someone else to take the leap 1st, invest their time and money, then they follow and copy what has been done.
Click to expand...

But what about docks. Look at all these everything from eSata to usb3 all combinations and variations.

What is the big deal about sticking a TB port on one of them. It's just a frikken dock so they don't have to manufacture an range of external stand alone HD's with their concomitant variety of internal HD's.

It seems so tantalisingly near, yet so far. I feel like Homer Simpson trying to grab onto an ethereal dream donut.
 
Licensing fee just to put the connector on the device, dock or external HDD.

3rd parties are looking at around $60+ just to add the components for Thunderbolt.
Then making people pay $50 for the cable and the 3rd party needs to make money off of it.
You're looking at a $150 easy for a dock.

From a manufacturing standpoint, I can make a USB3, eSata, etc dock/hub for $10-15, sell it for $30.
People are cheap, Macs are still the minority. We have to just sit and wait.
 
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