Long-time Mac accessory vendor OWC acquiring Akitio

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware
OWC has announced that is is acquiring Akitio, with the merger creating a larger organization focused on the prosumer market.

Akitio Thunderbolt 3 enclosure
Akitio Thunderbolt 3 enclosure


Both companies target a similar audience, primarily made up of Mac users. By joining forces, they are able to work together to create new accessories and software for the mid to high end market. Akitio is known for its popular and well-designed Thunderbolt 3 accessories.

"This acquisition gives us the opportunity to strengthen our core prosumer lineup and market reach with photography, video and music pros with some really exceptional new offerings," said Larry O'Connor, OWC Founder & CEO. "Our product lines and brands are quite complementary, with Akitio bringing a strong reputation in the Windows space and segments like performance gaming, AR/VR, high- end creative strengths to our base. I see tremendous opportunities ahead for our team and our customers."

OWC makes its own storage and Thunderbolt accessories as well as high quality memory and upgrade kits for many Apple machines.

"The new combined organization brings unique market strengths, excellent geographic coverage, an outstanding engineering team, and exceptional design and product development capabilities," said Tommy Chen, CEO of Akitio. "OWC has developed an incredible reputation in the market for delivering products that are lightning fast, high-performance and reliable, and our entire team is proud to join OWC and take that reputation even higher."

After the acquisition, all Akitio warranties will remain intact. Akitio's team will remain in their California-based office as well as satellite locations around the world and OWC will still operate out of its headquarters in Illinois.

OWC made the announcement on Thursday morning, just days ahead of the largest electronics show of the year -- CES -- where they are set to debut their latest wares. AppleInsider will be hands-on during CES with all of OWC's new products.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    emoelleremoeller Posts: 574member
    I use products from from both of these companies every day.  Congratulations on the merger. 
  • Reply 2 of 10
    livingroomlivingroom Posts: 13member
    yeah OWC stuff is WAY WAY overpriced. I do not look forward to Akitio products going up by hundreds of dollars just because the OWC name is slapped on it.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    kmac1036kmac1036 Posts: 281member
    livingroom said:
    yeah OWC stuff is WAY WAY overpriced. I do not look forward to Akitio products going up by hundreds of dollars just because the OWC name is slapped on it.
    actually, if you go shopping on the two sites, the TB3 equipment, like for like, is less than $60 apart, either way you go. Nothing against Akitio, OWC gear has been really easy for me to get ordered and shipped over the years & the regular sales on macsales.com not only makes it competitive priced, I've often gotten a better price from, say, B&H on the same or comparable gear (re:akitio) direct from OWC. So, that statement is clearly misguided, to say the least.
    cornchipchasm
  • Reply 4 of 10
    nhtnht Posts: 4,522member
    kmac1036 said:
    livingroom said:
    yeah OWC stuff is WAY WAY overpriced. I do not look forward to Akitio products going up by hundreds of dollars just because the OWC name is slapped on it.
    actually, if you go shopping on the two sites, the TB3 equipment, like for like, is less than $60 apart, either way you go. Nothing against Akitio, OWC gear has been really easy for me to get ordered and shipped over the years & the regular sales on macsales.com not only makes it competitive priced, I've often gotten a better price from, say, B&H on the same or comparable gear (re:akitio) direct from OWC. So, that statement is clearly misguided, to say the least.
    $60 is a significant amount for a $300 item.  Akitio provided good value.  OWC, meh.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    tbornottbornot Posts: 116member
    More skittering behind the scenes as the Apple team gets ready for the iBox game console.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    davgregdavgreg Posts: 1,037member
    Have no experience with Akitio, but OWC has always done well by me. They make good stuff, stand behind it and they have always been behind the Mac.
    chasm
  • Reply 7 of 10
    colinngcolinng Posts: 116member
    OWC’s service and support is really good - they do stand behind their products and that’s why I keep going back to them. 
    chasm
  • Reply 8 of 10
    kmac1036kmac1036 Posts: 281member
    nht said:
    kmac1036 said:
    livingroom said:
    yeah OWC stuff is WAY WAY overpriced. I do not look forward to Akitio products going up by hundreds of dollars just because the OWC name is slapped on it.
    actually, if you go shopping on the two sites, the TB3 equipment, like for like, is less than $60 apart, either way you go. Nothing against Akitio, OWC gear has been really easy for me to get ordered and shipped over the years & the regular sales on macsales.com not only makes it competitive priced, I've often gotten a better price from, say, B&H on the same or comparable gear (re:akitio) direct from OWC. So, that statement is clearly misguided, to say the least.
    $60 is a significant amount for a $300 item.  Akitio provided good value.  OWC, meh.
    Akitio is $50 higher on their dock. And like I said, OWC has sales quite often.
    chasm
  • Reply 9 of 10
    welshdogwelshdog Posts: 1,897member
    I would like to request a 5 disk RAID enclosure with a Mac Mini form factor and Thunderbolt 3 please.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    commentzillacommentzilla Posts: 725member
    I'm disappointed by this news. Competition is good especially since OWC has such a large presence in Apple's 3rd party market space.

    I'm not really surprised OWC bought Akitio since many of their products have fallen behind, especially their overpriced software based Thunderbolt RAIDs. Software RAIDs often have more flexibility but in my opinion they are not worth the hassle, especially for laptop users, since the RAID cannot rebuild without being attached to a computer while consuming CPU cycles. I prefer hardware RAIDs that can function and rebuild on their own without needing a computer attached. 
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