Re: Why no third party solutions?

[george@cs.nps.navy.mil (Robert George)]

> 
> I find it strange that Apple's Powerbook and Duo series have several dock
> and accessory options, yet there are none for the Thinkpads. Why no third
> party port replicators, battery chargers, batteries(!) or AC adaptors?
> 
> What I'd really like to see is a mini-dock with SCSI on it. The regular
> dock may be semi-portable, but I really don't need all that..... The
> additional PCMCIA slots on the Port Replicator2 don't make a lot of sense
> to me personally.
> 

     What seems really strange to me is that the ThinkPad itself is 
impecably designed and built like a rock, but the Docking bay is garbage.
If you open the cover and look at the ridiculously shaped speakers, you
find a cheap half-dollar sized speaker like you'd buy at Radio Shack for
$1.50.  I was also genuinely annoyed when I purchased a very expensive 
digital storage oscilliscope ISA card and found that the power supply in
the Dock I was unable to power it.  Finally, the construction of the 
Dock I itself, as well as the locking mechanism belongs on an Acer laptop,
not on an IBM ThinkPad.

I guess they drew straws and the first-string engineers got to design the
ThinkPad, and the summer co-ops designed the Dock I.

 

| Robert George            |  Army Research Laboratory              |
| robertg@assb01.arl.mil   |  AMSRL-SS-IC                           |
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