Bend an ear, folks. I'm going to give you the "benefit" of my thinking on the LS-120.
On the Plus side, the LS-120 is 20% larger (no big deal). It is faster than the old 1.44Mb floppy. It has a large corporate sponsor in Compaq. I don't count 3M as they only make the diskettes. They would be happy to make Zip disks if they could. (Note to any Iomega employees - that would be a real marketing coup!)
But the real advantage of the LS-120 is backward compatibility with the 1.44Mb floppy. This doesn't mean much to desktop users, who are adding the Zip as a second drive. But for laptop manufacturers it is a killer issue. Laptops do not have room for three drives: HD, FD, and Zip. The LS-120 will let Compaq (a BIG laptop seller) keep the standard formation of HD, FD.
This will also help Compaq line up other OEMs such as Toshiba, NEC, Dell, IBM, and any other laptop OEM. (just mentioning possibilities, not starting rumors.)
The LS-120 uses the IDE interface: same as most Hard Disks and CD-ROMs. This is faster than the Floppy Disk interface, which can now be phased out.
Negatives for the LS-120 are that it is too tied to Compaq. Other OEMs may not want to help Compaq establish a standard. Compaq can counter this if MKE has full independence in manufacturing the drive.
Another negative is that the LS-120 is more complex and harder to build than the Zip. The Laser Servo involves two read heads per side: one for optical tracking and one for magnetic read/write. In addition, the magnetic head is actually two side-by-side: one for 120Mb and one for 1.44Mb. This leads to manufacturing expense and difficulties. I expect that's why this drive is so late to market.
The LS-120 disk (media) is a standard floppy disk with standard magnetic film. But, in an additional manufacturing step, optical servo tracks are laid. This makes the disk more expensive than a 1.44 floppy, but I don't know how it relates to a Zip disk.
The LS-120 is late to market. Big negative.
No one has announced an external version of the LS-120. There is no SCSI or Parallel Port version.
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Positives for the Zip: Available in three interfaces: SCSI, Parallel, and IDE. I think many people miss the importance of this. I bought the parallel version because I need to move data between machines that are not networked. Now, I want to buy an internal IDE Zip just for the speed advantage on my main desktop. The IDE version will be the big seller to OEMs.
A big positive for Zip is the retail price. $199 is just the right price point for this product. Whoever it was at Iomega, who decided on this price point and made it stick, deserves a gold medal (and some stock options). It is *just perfect*. At $199 I knew I would buy one the moment I saw it. At $300, I probably would not have bought. I really hope someone makes the mistake of trying to sell the LS-120 at $230 or $240 (the same price per megabyte) but that's probably too much to ask for.
In the battle between Zip and LS-120, Iomega's retail strength will be
important. Iomega has great marketing. Zip is named right, styled right, and priced right. I don't even know of any *plans* to retail the LS-120.
Zip drive has a plus in speed. I don't attach much importance to this. We are, after all, talking about a floppy disk replacement. This is probably balanced by the LS-120 plus in capacity.
The big negative for the Zip drive is lack of 1.44Mb compatibility. This does not matter much to desktop users, who can use the external Zip, or may have a spare bay for an internal Zip. But it is a big negative to laptop OEMs.
To counter this, the Zip will need have a good price advantage over the LS-120 at the OEM level. I can see a laptop manufacturer using Zip and HD either with no 1.44 FD, or with an option for an external 1.44 FD. But only after Zip has become the standard megafloppy (a term I just coined).
Another way to get a Zip into a laptop is to use removable components.
Toshiba and Compaq already have laptops in which you can remove the FD and insert a CD-ROM. At least one manufacturer also has an extra battery pack that goes in their slot. Iomega needs a Zip drive to fit in these slots.
How to win the war: Low price, High volume, Publicity, and OEM agreements. Thank God Iomega understands this. The more Zip is viewed as the standard, the easier it will be for laptop manufacturers to leave out the 1.44 FD.
When the first laptops came out they used the new 3.5" 720Mb drives. Many people could not move data between laptop and desktop. That situation was eased by products like The Brooklyn Bridge and Laplink. Today you have an interconnect product built into MS-DOS and Windows 95. Also, networks are more prevalent. I would love to have a laptop with a Zip drive and an IR (Infra Red) connection built in. Who needs a 1.44 FD? |
