Dr. Carroll: I was going to post the following message on another bulletin board, but decided against it because some of the participants were getting a little too emotional. Could I get your comments on this subject.
Re: Replacing the HD with the Jaz
There are NO sensible technical reasons why a high capacity removable disk drive cannot replace a fixed hard drive right now.
There are many thing that you could do with a removable disk drive that you couldn't do with a fixed hard drive.(Such as keeping separate Operating Systems - Windows 3X, Windows 95, Windows NT, IBM OS2, Various UNIX, Apple, and others on separate platters and each with all its programs as one example)
There is NOTHING significant that you could do with a fixed hard drive that you could not do with a removable drive.
The only argument that you could have that a fixed drive cannot be replaced by a removable drive is that the removable drive is more expensive, and many people will not be able to see the advantages and will not pay extra for it. This is quite clear from reading this board. Many highly intelligent people cannot see the advantages of a removable drive and will not pay extra for it.
However, Kim Edwards has already stated that the Jaz drive will eventually be reduced in price to $199.00.. Even if he does this right now there is still a differential in favor of the fixed hard drive. However, if the differential is completely eliminated, as it is theoretically possible, because in selling a fixed hard drive, the profit has to be built ino the price of the drive at the point of sales. That is the only source of revenue for the hard drive manufacturer.
When you are selling a removable drive, you could sell it for a lower profit or even at no profit, because there is an annuity income in selling the cartridges. As it is structured right now there is a huge profit in selling the cartridges. Iomega could conceivably see as much profit in a Jaz cartridge as US Robotics gets in selling a modem.
What do you think, Dr. Carroll. Especially the technical part about replacing the fixed hard drive with the Jaz drive?
Best regards,
Mary Cluney
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