Drobo strikes me as a fascinating and very explicit example of the technical device made by people who are simultaneously very smart and very dumb.
On the one hand it appears to be a great solution to a real problem.
On the other hand, WTF is with the performance?
It's not like this is a device being sold to ignorant consumers who wouldn't know better (a standard Apple excuse that is probably often true). The only people who are going to buy this box are people who already know what they are doing. And it's not like this box is desperately trying to cut costs --- $499 is pretty damn steep for what it actually offers in this day-and-age.
So, with this background, I ask, once again, WTF is with the performance? They admit to providing only 20MB/s, and they only offer a USB2 connection, which under the best possible circumstances isn't going to give you better than 35MB/s --- this in a day and age where drives routinely give about 100MB/s streaming.
A well designed device would replace their 8086 controller or whatever it is with something that costs $5 instead of 5c and can sustain reasonable performance, and would spring the extra $15 for the chipsets and connectors for FW400, FW800 and eSATA.
It's one thing to try to soft-peddle this by saying you're not selling to the performance sensitive market, but that's just dumb. You're making about $150 at least on each box. If you could double the size of your market by dropping your profit by $20 you're totally ahead.
I, for one, am simply not interested. Nice idea, a device I could really use; but I'm fscking sick and tired of having to put up with USB disk speeds, and I'm certainly not going to spend a reasonable chunk of cash to stay trapped in that ghetto.
(And while we're on the subject, God damn it Apple --- bring on the Macs and airport base stations with eSATA connectors.)
I am guessing that some of the stuff hits from Stuff White People Like kinda close to home....
"Some white people decide to pull the ultimate move. Prius, Apple Sticker on the back, iPod rocking, and Democratic Candidate bumper sticker."
Posted by: Brad Holden | February 18, 2008 at 09:58 PM
Drobo strikes me as a fascinating and very explicit example of the technical device made by people who are simultaneously very smart and very dumb.
On the one hand it appears to be a great solution to a real problem.
On the other hand, WTF is with the performance?
It's not like this is a device being sold to ignorant consumers who wouldn't know better (a standard Apple excuse that is probably often true). The only people who are going to buy this box are people who already know what they are doing. And it's not like this box is desperately trying to cut costs --- $499 is pretty damn steep for what it actually offers in this day-and-age.
So, with this background, I ask, once again, WTF is with the performance? They admit to providing only 20MB/s, and they only offer a USB2 connection, which under the best possible circumstances isn't going to give you better than 35MB/s --- this in a day and age where drives routinely give about 100MB/s streaming.
A well designed device would replace their 8086 controller or whatever it is with something that costs $5 instead of 5c and can sustain reasonable performance, and would spring the extra $15 for the chipsets and connectors for FW400, FW800 and eSATA.
It's one thing to try to soft-peddle this by saying you're not selling to the performance sensitive market, but that's just dumb. You're making about $150 at least on each box. If you could double the size of your market by dropping your profit by $20 you're totally ahead.
I, for one, am simply not interested. Nice idea, a device I could really use; but I'm fscking sick and tired of having to put up with USB disk speeds, and I'm certainly not going to spend a reasonable chunk of cash to stay trapped in that ghetto.
(And while we're on the subject, God damn it Apple --- bring on the Macs and airport base stations with eSATA connectors.)
Posted by: Maynard Handley | February 19, 2008 at 06:09 PM