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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation

WDC 187.70

+9.0%

Jan 2 9:30 AM EST

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To: OrionX who wrote (1479)	11/12/1997 12:45:00 PM
From: Jerome Wittamer	of 60323

Discussion on n.hand begins at message 120 on this thread. Here's an exerpt. Nov 7, 1996 (yes 1996) : Message from F. Keeler to X : I think you summed up many of the questions that remain about n.hand. >Size. Half a business card is very misleading. What is the height of >the unit? The disk is no more wide than half the width of an adult man's finger. Call it no more than 1/2 an inch or 1.25 mm. The drive is probably 3X that or 4 mm. >2) Power. The reason there are flash hard-drives today is because of >the power demands of a mechanical storage device Obviously one factor in flash memory's favor. Although it is the non-volatility of the memory chips that make them so expensive relative to DRAM. >What will be the cost of 20 meg flash vs. n-Hand. Based on past Iomega products and announcements I would say that its $10. This might be $10 for a 3-pack or something. >Using the flash solution you eliminate the need for each device to >incorporate a hard drive (the flash does everything) There is cost to adding flash card reading compatibility. Iomega said on a CNBC interview that it isn't much cheaper than $100. I think for SanDisk the question becomes: do customers need unlimited small factor storage? It is cheaper to dump the flash card to a hard drive or even a full sized Zip disk than to keep buying n.hand disks. >Will a photographer want to go to a site with 18 blanks (try to write >labels on disks that size) or would they prefer a 360 meg flash card? This is why I think there is room for SanDisk and Intel at the professional user level. Plenty of money to be made there. But will a retail consumer rather spend $295 for more 20 MB flash memory or $10 for more 20 MB n.hand memory. Remember, this consumer might not own a PC. >Put another way three years from now, how does someone with a n-Hand >device upgrade? A flash card can be purchased at a store and used >just like the previous one. The n-Hand will need to be sent into the >manufacturer. I don't see this as an issue. As larger n.hand drives and disks become available, backwards compatibility will be maintained. This will give 40 MB n.hand customers the option of 20 or 40 MB disks. 20 MB disks will still be around to buy. At $5-$10 a 20 MB disk it doesn't demand instant upgrading to higher MBs. >5) Environment. A flash card can drop from a height of 8 feet onto >concrete with no damage... try that with a zip drive. A Zip disk can sustain that fall easily. Zip disks are actually more rugged than 3.5" floppy disks. I think the camera would break before the Zip drive/disk. >6) Production. When is the Iomega device really going to ship? To meet the announced timeschedule of OEM acceptance (3Q97 - 4Q97) the n.hand will have to ship 2Q97-3Q97. Not many products/vaporware ship on time from any technology company though.

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