"As sensational as Iomega's previous Zip drive was, the Jaz gives you
10 times the storage (at much higher speeds) for less than three times
the cost. In an industry where change is measured almost daily, we
believe the Jaz drive is likely to set the standard for a long time to come."
Kangming, Thanks for the nice info.
The Jaz is our ace in the hole, a wild card, a source of big surprises.
Interestingly, IOMG has been very quiet about the Jaz ramp up and
selling volume. But according to recent publications, the Jaz is selling
extremely well, right behind the Zip. It seems that the financial media
folks are not even aware that the Jaz exists, and that it is just as a
smashing success as the Zip at the same ramp-up stage.
I think the fact that Seagate, WD, Quantum, Connors are all hurting
quite badly provides an excellent clue on how well the Jaz must be
doing. Zip and Jaz are the one-two knockout punches that are quite
difficult for these folks or anyone out there in the data storage
industry to defend against.
I can't wait 'till quaterly reports to find out more about the state of the Jaz.
I believe the margin on Jaz drives and disks are terrific and far better
than the Zip. Revenue per Jaz drive is 3-4 that of Zip, and revenue per
Jaz disk is 10-15 times that of Zip. It does not take much of Jaz sales
to make a big impact on the top and bottom lines.
IOMG management is currently focusing on making the Zip a standard,
and is probably satisfied with keeping the Jaz as a specialty, high-margin
product for while - until they are forced to do otherwise. I think IOMG 's
management are very smart to first focus on making the Zip an undisputed
standard, and keeping the Jaz a semi secret in the background. There is
a potential that making too much waves with the Jaz can actually hurt the
chance of the Zip becoming a standard. But once the Zip becomes an
undisputed standard to replace the 1.44FD, I think we'll see a major step-up
and change in the marketing strategy for the Jaz.
Young |
