Belkin is a recognized US-based consumer electronics and networking company. Today, you’ll find that many wall chargers, phone connectors, PC peripherals, and other electronic cables are from Belkin. The company’s history began with Chet Pipkin in the early 1980s. He observed the early demand for cables to connect personal computers to home-use printers. He then began to manufacture and sell computer cables for the new PC and tech accessories market in Hawthorne, California. This focus on creating accessories is what ultimately brought success to Belkin. Pipkin left his studies in 1982 to focus on growing his business, which became an official cable manufacturing company a year later. By 1985, the global demand for Belkin products grew so large that the company had to contract factories in Asia to increase production. As the 1990s rolled in, Belkin also began producing USB storage devices and surge protectors. It also produced the brand’s first stereo cables and speaker wiring in 2002, opening its reach into the digital audio market. The peripheral tech company continued to grow and adapt to the quickly changing technology a decade later. The early 2000s saw the initial spark of what would be the smartphone revolution. Belkin catered to the new tech accessory demand by producing chargers and connector cables. However, smartphones didn’t gain popularity among consumers until after 2007, when Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone. Within a year, Belkin was already manufacturing and designing more smartphone accessories. In 2012, Belkin launched WeMo to assemble smart home products. It also acquired the data networking hardware producer for small businesses and home users, Linksys, in 2013. This acquisition boosted Belkin’s influence in the wireless connectivity market. Foxconn Interconnect Technology bought Belkin International Inc. for $866 million in September 2018.
With such a rich history, it’s no wonder the company has so many products out there, from new to used. Finding the right documentation can be difficult, especially in the English language. This is the reason why we opened up a section dedicated to Belkin User Manuals, where you can view or download each PDF.