Ken, Ya know I couldn't just walk away. Pricing superiority is a valid argument, and to a point I can see why you feel OEMs would be hesitant. But, OEMs have learned that consumers are now driving this market. Consumers are becoming more astute and will demand products that offer them the most benefits for their dollar.
So, why do I think Zip will easily become the standard:
1. Information Superhighway (God I hate that term):
Anyway, there are currently 30 million of us out here in this sandbox. When you look at the worldwide potential you can see that 30mm is a drop in the bucket. With all the on-line services and internet use and the downloading taking place, OEMs have to deliver a better storage solution to ease the hard drive burden.
2. Consumer Multimedia Use:
We all think we are art directors, musicians, mixers, whatever. With consumer multimedia applications now easy to use by even the most novice user, people are becoming megabyte hogs -- where are they going to store their latest and greatest video/audio clips not to mention the images they download, create, and manipulate.
3. Home Market Explosion:
Multiple users having multiple usages of the new must have appliance. Yes, I think the PC is now an appliance. You can bet, as the whole family becomes more sophisticated they aren't going to want their information easily accessible. Dad doesn't want his work projects touched, Mom doesn't want Quicken accessed by the kids so they can see how much allowance they should ask for, and the kids don't want the e-mails they are sending to their friends read by Mom and Dad. Everyone is going to need their own space that they can easily take with them.
4. Application sizes, personal electronic filing, mobile computing to name just a few emerging computer trends that are quickly making the low capacity floppy go away.
5. Finally, Human Nature. Who throws things away?
The floppy just hasn't been cuttin' it. OEMs will be forced to adopt a standard that keeps up with these trends, and IOMG seems like the most likely choice at this time.
I know that this is a jaded marketing reply, but I don't even attempt to try to factor COGs into an equation when I don't have the full formula.
Anyway, hope things aren't too late for you at work. Have a good weekend.
trakker |
