>>1. Castlewood is working out the bugs. Orb must come out glitch free and high reliability to survive and compete with Jaz.<<
Not that Jaz2 doesn't have problems itself. Just pay a visit to alt.iomega.zip.jazz to see what I mean. But you may be correct in that with only EIDE Orb units currently shipping, Castlewood is going to see if these presumably more technically-minded users experience any problems before releasing the more consumer-oriented parallel and external SCSI model Orbs.
>>2. Independent testings may be showing more glitches to work out. Orb is definitely not coming out with a big bang.<<
Castlwood probably does not have the resources to mount a full scale attack yet. Castlewood is a "Virtual Corporation" model.
>>4. Iom must be putting considerable pressure on the distributors and resellers to hold back introduction of Orbs. <<
Could be. But in any regard, Iomega must lose margins somehow. If Orb doesn't directly take away sales from Iomega because of behind-the-scenes manuevering, Iomega still has to offer distributors incentives NOT to stock Orb...this means Iomega realizes lower margins through rebates or lower prices.
>>5. Right now, there is better than 50% chance of Castlewood going the way of syqt and avatar. <<
I doubt it. Castlewood has a very low (and expensive) USA Overhead compared to either Syquest or Iomega. Castlewood is running a "virtual corporation" model that divides functions between its partners. Castlewood proper is responsible for general Marketing and direction. Production is being handled by Aiwa, Sanyo, and Trans Cap (all of which own portions of Castlewood). In essence, Castlewood has deep pockets behind it, and all of them have a direct interest in seeing Orb succeed.
>>6. The only positive indicator is iom's stock price, which is reflecting the anticipated competition from Orbs and others, as well as iom future lower margin for the existing products.<<
I don't think Orb is figured into IOM's stock price. In fact, IOM's current and future financial woes alone probably aren't even fully figured into IOM stock price yet. But they will be soon.
>>7. The only other positive indicator is the tone of iomthreads, which are either dead or full of hopes and gropes, typical of a stock on its way down to become penny stock. <<
There are still the long-time-hangers-on Iomaniacs that refuse to see reality and instead wrap themselves up in a long-forgotten fantasy...that Zip will be in every computer replacing the 1.44 floppy. In 4 years to date, Zip has replaced NOTHING in computers. And it never will. As for IOM stock, it is on its way to $3...and lower. |
