Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock to Launch in September at $299

[Jean Déraps]

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/09...t-express-dock-to-launch-in-september-at-299/

I just don't understand why all of these are taking so long to come to market, are so expensive and have only 1 Thunderbolt port....

Is the Thunderbolt consortium overcharging for royalties?

 

[Luc Bouvrette]

That's insane. No USB 3? 299 is definitely over the top.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/09...t-express-dock-to-launch-in-september-at-299/

I just don't understand why all of these are taking so long to come to market, are so expensive and have only 1 Thunderbolt port....

Intel [or Thunderbolt Consortium, if you want to call them that] is just as confused as you. They strongly suggest that all devices have a secondary port for pass-thru. Intel currently manufactures all the host interface chipsets and port electronics, which could be part of the roadblock here -- some may be waiting for more economical parts. Although, it doesn't seem like they're that expensive... Of course they are in contrast to USB2.0 ports... Intel includes dual port headers on all interface host and device chipsets, so any device that doesn't have a pass-thru port currently is due to the manufacturer of that device not taking the time in R&D to figure out how to connect the header Intel is giving them (and they are paying for). Or they're unwilling to spend the extra $1.50 or whatever it costs to physically install the port on each device. You know, that adds up if you're making 200K units on an initial production run of a product which you don't know if anyone will buy... So I guess I can see why manufacturers are cutting corners. We saw this a lot in the beginning with Firewire -- no pass-thru / daisy-chain ports on most of the first devices, those that had them didn't always work, now they all have them.

Is the Thunderbolt consortium overcharging for royalties?

No. It's f@$%*&g free. There's a $150 one-time device registration fee so you can use the Thunderbolt logo. Initial interest was really low too... So Intel, back in April, started giving out Thunderbolt SDKs and all sorts of stuff for free, trying to get peripheral makers onboard. I think one thing that hurt was most people don't need TB or don't see why they would need it. Especially since USB3.0 is relatively new and people don't think they need that, either, nor do they understand what is technically "wrong" with USB3.0 or why TB is better.

Integrating Thunderbolt now is supposedly about 15% more expensive than integrating USB during its first year of availability. Cables are nearly 5X the cost to manufacture due to the active electronics in the connectors. Most of us remember how that whole USB thing went... Apple had those funky new ports on their systems to which they were connecting their keyboard and mouse -- a real pain in the ass that they weren't PS/2 compliant! But Apple was telling everyone how great it would be because those ports could also be used to connect printers, external hard drives and more. For nearly 18 months, the PC industry thought the guys at Apple were smoking crack. Then Intel shipped motherboards with USB headers on them and Microsoft rolled USB driver support natively into Windows and USB was everywhere.

To top it all off, there seems to be a lot of the "first to market" entitlement these days. Manufacturers charging questionably high prices for items that realistically should not have much associated R&D expense, just because there's nothing else like it on the market just yet. It's like they assume that their product fits a certain number of customers and an estimated percentage of those customers will buy the product at nearly any price. So they gouge. An example is if you were to make an item that should sell for $100, and you could realistically sell 100,000 units at that price. However, you know that 60,000 of those realistic target sales will be willing to pay $300 for this widget.. So you set the price at $300 and hold it there until the competition is ready with something similar, drop to the $100 price point and keep on going. We as consumers are to blame, people are not afraid to use their credit cards and will do so, even paying 200-500% premiums for low-cost devices, just to have that functionality now.

If had those aforementioned TB to eSATA adapters ready to ship and I told you all they would be $400. I bet half of you would still say, "whatever. I need it NOW!". I actually was never told an official price for the adapter I tested, but they said it would be $200 or less... So I'm thinking MSRP of $149 or $199... If it were to happen. IMO, more than they should be, but they were unsure. I would be shocked if combined cost of manufacture and packaging to be distribution ready put them at more than $30 per unit.

 

[Michael Hastings]

If had those aforementioned TB to eSATA adapters ready to ship and I told you all they would be $400. I bet half of you would still say, "whatever. I need it NOW!". I actually was never told an official price for the adapter I tested, but they said it would be $200 or less... So I'm thinking MSRP of $149 or $199... If it were to happen. IMO, more than they should be, but they were unsure. I would be shocked if combined cost of manufacture and packaging to be distribution ready put them at more than $30 per unit.

You're right, I would pay $400 because i save a little on crappy express card esata, but also save a lot on hard drives in my existing esata cases.

 

[N_Villers]

Lacie announced a TB to eSata dock. Not fond of Lacie drives but...

"LaCie also announced an external Thunderbolt dock dubbed the eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series. It is a handy solution for those wishing to connect external devices, such as eSATA hard drives and Thunderbolt displays, to their notebook with ease. The eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series looks like an external storage, but do not let the looks deceive you: This box has on its back two eSATA ports topping out at 6GBps each (same as your computer’s internal SSD), in addition to two Thunderbolt ports. Such a solution lets you hook up two speedy eSATA drives and still daisy chain other Thunderbolt devices like Thunderbolt displays and other hubs (but, unfortunately, not Thunderbolt storage devices). It will be available in the first quarter of 2012 for an undisclosed price."

Hopefully this is just the beginning and at NAB we will see more.

 

[Peter Stelzhammer]

At least it seems like the cables are getting cheaper this year…
I can't help it but some of this reminds me of things we've witnessed with Firewire before.

 

[Tehben Dean]

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/09...t-express-dock-to-launch-in-september-at-299/

I just don't understand why all of these are taking so long to come to market, are so expensive and have only 1 Thunderbolt port....

Is the Thunderbolt consortium overcharging for royalties?

It is ridiculous that it's taking so long to ship, but see quote from linked article below:
"...and two Thunderbolt ports (one upstream and one downstream) for daisy-chaining to another Thunderbolt compatible device. "