All: Toray lowers price of PD drives to compete against Iomega's Jaz
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From: August 30, 1996 Computer Retail Week
By Roger C. Lanctot
SAN MATEO, CALIF.
Not to be outdone by the price-cutting of competing removable-storage suppliers, Toray Optical Storage Solutions has
reduced the price of its Phasewriter Dual drives by $50.
The price move, in conjunction with a $50 consumer rebate, will effectively reduce the street price of the company's
internal and external Phasewriter Dual drives by $100, to $399 and $499, respectively.
In addition, the company is increasing the amount of free media included with its Phasewriter Dual drives to three disks
from one, representing a further $100 savings, according to Jim Rowley, general manager for Toray. "We like the
positioning that this gives us vis-a-vis Iomega's Jaz drive, since we are providing a 2G solution in the box vs. their 1G,
and the consumer gets a CD-ROM drive in the bargain with our product." Toray is also adding Seagate's Arcada software
for scheduling, disk spanning and data compression when used with Phasewriter Dual disks. Rowley said the new
campaign, which kicks off Sept. 1, encompasses price-protection and a stock rotation plan to get new product in to
replace older inventory.
Toray's Phasewriter Dual products are carried by Best Buy, Creative Computers, Elek-Tek, Fry's Electronics and Micro
Center, as well as by Ingram Micro, Global Computer Supplies, Insight Direct and Micro Warehouse."
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For those of you who are not familiar with the Toray product here's
some features and specs:
- Toray Phasewriter Dual PD Drives act like a 4X CD-ROM reader &
rewritable optical drive in one unit
- 195ms average seek time (4X CD-ROM mode)
- 600KB/sec transfer rate (4X CD-ROM mode)
- uses 650MB cartridges
- Advanced PCR technology works like a hard drive, allows almost
limitless rewrites
- 165ms average seek time (rewritable optical mode)
- 0.87MB/sec transfer rate (rewritable optical mode)
- Single front-loading tray for both CDROMs and rewritable optical
(PD) disks
- SCSI-II interface
- Plug `n` Play for Windows, MAC, DOS, OS/2
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The Toray PD drive is virtually identical to Panasonic's PD drive except exterior case differences. Compaq does offer Panasonic PD as
an option in over half of its PC models. Both Toray and Panasonic PD
drives looked promising when they first debut since they offered the
reliability of optical storage and maintained read compatibility with conventional CDROMs all in one unit. Getting a 4X CDROM and a 650MB
rewritable optical drive for under $500 is not bad considering the
rewritable 650MB media is priced sensibly at $50. But there has been
very little industry/consumer support for the products. To date, I haven't seen any OEMs ship a PC with the PD drive as standard equipment. I suspect the product will be around for another couple of years but as the speed of CDROM drives has increased from
1X->2X->3X->4X->6X->8X and now 10X the PD's 4X speed will not be fast enough to handle the next crop of video/audio intensive CDROM titles. When compared to Jaz the PD drives rewritable performance falls very short. The Toray and Panasonic PD drives are just another player in the crowded removable storage market. IMO it will fail to become a market leader.
Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!
Hyun |
