Can I use a Thunderbolt 2 device with my 2011-era MacBook Pro? I'm asking for a friend who has a 2011-era MacBook Pro. She needs extra USB ports, and it looks like what she needs is a Thunderbolt device. The 2011 MacBook Pro has Thunderbolt 1, of course.

If she buys a Thunderbolt 2 device, will it work with her 2011-era MacBook Pro? She's going to upgrade her laptop at some point, and it would be nice for her to have the Thunderbolt 2 device so that it works at a higher speed out of the box once her laptop is newer.
Thunderbolt 2 is backward compatible with Thunderbolt 1. So it should work no problem unless the product manufacturer says otherwise. Thought you only gets half the speed since the port on the computer only have Thunderbolt 1.