Marie,
The news is extremely positive for IOMG. AMI (American Megatrends Inc.) and Phoenix Technologies Ltd. are the industry leading suppliers of BIOS ROMs to just about every PC system board manufacturer. These include AMI, Intel, SuperMicro, Micronics, Acer and others. System boards from these companies end up in over 70% of all PCs shipped including Gateway, Dell, Micron, etc... If Intel's processors are the "brains" behind your PC then think of the BIOS ROMs as giving your PC its "personality." It is without question one of the most important elements of your PC that defines what type of hardware your machine will support as well as giving PCs overall IBM PC compatibility.
What does this have to do with Iomega? Well, first it is significant that AMI and Phoenix Technologies not only recognizes the need for a better floppy drive alternative but that the two companies have worked closely with Iomega to fully support the IDE ZIP(ATAPI device) in making the device act just like a floppy. It will be recognized as Drive A: and will be bootable (hence no need for a special controller card like in the case of the LS120 if you don't buy a Compaq PC). This will definitely help speed up ZIP becoming a standard more quickly because even though Iomega's OEM partners are shipping PCs with both floppy and ZIP the time it will take for users to realize the benefits of ZIP as a true floppy drive replacement, that offers both Drive A: assignment and boot capability, will decrease making industry transition period to a higher capacity floppy drive shorter than expected.
The press releases also mentions that Phoenix is working with other removable storage companies like OR Tech. to support the LS120. This is fine. Competition is always welcomed but as everyone is aware ZIP has such enormous momentum that I seriously doubt the LS120 will even capture a small market share. The reasons already posted numerous times are too late, too pricey, not consumer friendly, very bad marketing, Compaq sole OEM partner, etc... I wouldn't doubt Phoenix dropping support for the LS120 after seeing how poorly it has done in terms of sales. Consumers just won't demand it.
PC consumers won't see immediate effects of the AMI and Phoenix BIOS news but you can expect to see PC system boards shipping in late Q4 `96 and after will include the AMI or Phoenix BIOSs that support the next generation floppies. Most PC makers will still include the conventional floppy for a couple of more years to allow for backward compatiblity but chances are they will include some type of higher capacity drive like ZIP in making the transition to a higher capacity removable media(as we're seeing now with current Iomega OEM deals). Consumers are demanding it today and will dramatically increase in the future as projected by Dataquest and Disk/Trends. Today's news combined with increasing number of OEM partners and a clearly focused marketing strategy that promises to lower the price of ZIP for both OEMs and consumers will further propel ZIP in becoming successor to the conventional floppy drive.
regards,
Hyun |
