Other World Computing (OWC), founded in 1988, is an American computer hardware and software company, with an online store for upgrading ¹

Mac Mac or MAC most commonly refers to: * Mac (computer), a family of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * A variant of the word macaroni, mostly used in the name of the dish mac and cheese * Mac, ...

, ²

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

and accessories.

History

1988

At age 14, Larry O'Connor began LRO Enterprises, a printer ribbon reinking business, in his family's barn. A year later, LRO Enterprises reorganized into LRO Computer Sales and began selling computer memory chips via

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

. The company moved into its first facility in

Woodstock, Illinois Woodstock is a city in (and the county seat of) McHenry County, Illinois, United States. It is located 45 miles northwest of Chicago, making it one of the city's outer-most suburbs. Per the 2020 census, the population was 25,630. The city's hist ...

, and hired its first employees.

1990s

''1992'' - LRO Computer Sales shifted focus to computers by offering hard drives to its customers. ''1993 -'' LRO Computer Sales were incorporated in the state of Illinois under the name New Concepts Development Corporation (NCDC). The company then moved into a 2,500-square-foot office space, which expanded to about 6,500 square feet over the next eight years. ''1994 -'' O'Connor renamed LRO Computers Sales "Other World Computing" (OWC), which operates

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

NCDC. OWC shipped its first OWC-branded acceleration products in 1995 followed by the introduction of the Mercury G3 ZIF upgrade line in 1999.

2000s

OWC expanded and introduced the Mercury Classic Elite line of external storage and offered an

iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...

case. OWC announced a portable

FireWire IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony a ...

drive and a FireWire/USB combination product in 2003. Later on, OWC launched www.fastermac.net, a Macintosh-only

Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...

service that provided dial-up access throughout the U.S. specifically for Macintosh computer users in 2003. ''2004'' - The company also began offering an iPod battery replacement program and introduced the miniStack line of drives to complement Apple's Mac mini. ''2006'' - OWC introduced the first Dual-HD external FireWire drive RAID available up to 1.5 TB and became the first third party company with memory modules and upgrade kits for the Intel-based Mac Pro. It met Apple specifications and was the first to introduce a Quad Interface external hard drive combining FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and

eSATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to ...

connection options in one product – the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Quad Interface. ''2007'' ''-'' OWC announced it would be the US distributor of the

Axiotron Modbook The Modbook is a brand of a pen-enabled Mac tablet computers first manufactured by Axiotron, Inc. from 2008 to 2010, and then by Modbook Inc. from 2012 to present. It is an aftermarket Mac conversion based on certain models of the MacBook and ...

. OWC also introduced the OWC Mercury Rack Pro line and the OWC

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...

internal and external drives. . ''2008'' - OWC moved into a new corporate headquarters designed to platinum

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, constructio ...

standards. ''2009'' - OWC expanded its storage line with the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2, a desktop hardware RAID storage product. Later that year a Vestas V39-500 kW wind turbine started generating more electricity than OWC needed to run the facility. OWC said it was the first technology manufacturer/distributor in the U.S. to become totally on-site wind powered.

2010s

Other World Computing was on the ''Inc.'' magazine 5000 "Fastest-Growing Privately Owned Companies" and "Computer and Electronics Top 100" list from 2007 through 2013. ''2010'' - OWC announced the Mercury Extreme

SSD A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is ...

line of 2.5"

SATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host adapter, host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) ...

solid state drives. The OWC Data Doubler, for adding a second internal drive to MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac computers, was also introduced, as was the OWC Slim eSATA ExpressCard Adapter, which adds an eSATA port to Mac and PC notebooks. ''2011'' - Sales revenue was reported as $88.3 million, with about 137 employees. ''2019'' - OWC acquired fellow external computer storage products and accessories manufacturer Akitio.

Products

OWC markets upgrade kits for Apple products. The Data-Doubler installation kit allows customers to add a second 2.5" SATA

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magn ...

solid state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data Persistence (computer science), persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the Computer ...

to the optical drive bay of a Mac mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro or an iMac. The optical drive can then be repurposed as an external drive. OWC designs and manufactures

s. MaxRAM is a line of memory upgrades for Apple products. OWC provide solutions such as: external drives,

Network Attached Storage Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level (as opposed to block-level storage) computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. The term "NAS" can refer to both the techn ...

(NAS), internal drives, docks and adaptors,

memory card A memory card is an electronic data storage device used for storing digital information, typically using flash memory. These are commonly used in digital portable electronic devices. They allow adding memory to such devices using a card in a soc ...

s and

memory card reader A memory card reader is a device for accessing the data on a memory card such as a CompactFlash (CF), Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC). Most card readers also offer write capability, and together with the card, this can function as ...

s, PCIe expansion, a range of software and apps designed for data workflow, toolkits and accessories, and memory modules.

References

{{reflist

External links

macsales.comOWC.com
Computer hardware companies Companies established in 1988 Companies based in Illinois Computer companies of the United States