Similar products?

1

I’m all for the free market but these look eerily similar

http://www.amazon.com/Anker%C2%AE-7-P…

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Adapte…

http://www.amazon.com/Arkview-Speed-P…

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Port-S…

What’s up there? I know you had those designs first so?

2

Thanks for asking. All consumer electronics share a common supply chain. Even when the products are cosmetically different (the plastics or package), the PCB and certainly the chips are often common with many other products.

For example, in your first case with the Anker hub, we share a common plastic tooling for the case, but the PCB and power supply is different. Plugable units have an input power at USB’s native 5V, while Anker’s are 12V with down-step on the PCB to 5V so they can source 12V power supplies (the native voltage of SATA, etc.). This means we have to source a more expensive 5V high amperage power supply but provides the benefit that the hub unit itself runs cooler (given the same wattage) and has fewer components to fail.

We also try to evaluate and move to newer chipsets and firmware more quickly than others. And we have firmware update and other information on plugable.com so if you’re on an older version, we provide a path to upgrade.

So you can get some hints of relationships from the cosmetic looks of a product, but the guts can and will usually be different in ways large or small.

Hope that background helps make decisions. Thanks again for asking!
Bernie

3

Thank you, I decided on this

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-USB3-H…

I used the 2.0 hub in the past and it was never a problem, I no longer trust other manufacturers for reliable usb hubs.

Thanks!

4

Thanks for going out of your way for our products! And of course we’re here if any problems come up. Thanks! Bernie