Longtime Mac accessory vendor OWC today announced that it has acquired Akitio, maker of popular professional-level external storage solutions focused on Thunderbolt 3. Akitio also offers a number of other Thunderbolt 3 accessories including docks, eGPU boxes, and more.

owc akitio

"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."

While Akitio joins OWC's other brands at OWC's Illinois headquarters, Akitio's teams in California and internationally will remain at their current locations and all customer support and warranty obligations will be honored without interruption.

Tags: OWC, Akitio

Top Rated Comments

StellarVixen Avatar
StellarVixen
69 months ago
Ewwww, I am not glad for this. Akitio was the most affordable manufacturer of TB3 stuff, I am afraid that affordability is gone now...
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AMP12345 Avatar
AMP12345
69 months ago
Maybe I'm slowly becoming a grumpy old man who doesn't like change, but this makes me nervous. I've always had a great experience with Akitio and I'm just not sure OWC can keep that up. Maybe... but only time will tell.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
monokakata Avatar
monokakata
69 months ago
I wonder how much difference this will make, really. It was clear to me that the OWC TB enclosures were really Akitio, rebranded. I've had the 4 bay TB2 model, and the 4 bay TB3 model. The TB3 model is identical physically, but of course I don't know whether the firmware is the same or not.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macduke Avatar
macduke
69 months ago
Maybe I'm slowly becoming a grumpy old man who doesn't like change, but this makes me nervous. I've always had a great experience with Akitio and I'm just not sure OWC can keep that up. Maybe... but only time will tell.
Well, I don't have a lot of experience with OWC aside from some RAM which always worked, but in the past I looked all over and bought several USB 3.0 to eSATA controllers for some G-Drives that I had and all of them sucked until I bought the one from OWC which worked amazingly well. So, uh, that's something.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Anarchy99 Avatar
Anarchy99
69 months ago
Akitio is awesome they have been the most affordable for thunderbolt exclosures since prior to TB3 and apple's official support.

OWC are fine for mac accessories but overpriced

bad mix, this is the worst Tech news of 2019 so far. :(
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
keysofanxiety
69 months ago
OWC = Other Worldly Currency

Now these new accessories will cost an arm and a leg. Possibly your first-born too, depending if you take out the extended warranty.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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