Milo,
<It is my understanding that while CD-rom drives are cheap, CD "burners" are still relatively expensive and have been on the market for some time.>
Correct. Though they have come down in price, writeable CD's are still relatively expensive and very slow. They are not direct competition for JAZ and they have different uses. They are good for archiving data on cheap media, while JAZ is more like a conventional hard drive.
<DVD-rom is currently expensive and when DVD writeable is available how could it be more affordable than CD writeable?>
DVD-ROM will not be mainstream for some time, at least mid 1998, IMO. It is still expensive and if it follows the price curve of most new peripherals (using new technologies) it will take some time for the price to come down dramatically. Development costs must first be recovered.
< aren't all CD/DVD type drives write once? You plunk down $ for a blank disc, write your data to it and it's permanent. No erase, no reuse.>
No. There are CD type drives being developed (and some sold I believe) that are re-writeable. However, again, these are even more expensive, very slow, and will take even longer to hit mass volume pricing.
Long term, these as well as other future technologies could threaten, to some extent, Iomega's current products. However, it is unfair to compare tomorrow's CD/DVD technology to today's Iomega technology unless you believe that Iomega is through with all future development. Even having said that, tomorrow's technology still has some draw backs, of which speed is probably the most critical. Many power users use JAZ as an infinite hard drive. No CD/DVD type drive can match this type of performance yet and by the time it can....what will JAZ look like then???
Also, it should noted that there is nothing that precludes Iomega from selling DVD drives themselves. In fact, one of Iomega's biggest assests has become their brand name. HP has done very well selling Canon laser printers without having any internal laser printer technology themsleves.
Hope this helps,
FF |
