Steve, good find at www1.zdnet.com :
Noteworthy:
Iomega at a press conference last night plugged an enhanced product line, repeating again and again its mantra: "Zip, Jaz and Ditto". The firm demoed the ZipPlus drive (œ170 + VAT), which is out in December and is expected to use cartridges holding up to 200Mb. It runs at twice the speed of the conventional Zip and has a lightweight power supply and on on/off switch, said the firm.
If true, why did they keep it a secret? It seems likely that someone is confusing it with JAZ doubling its capacity.
Next, from www1.zdnet.com :
After winning over several desktop PC OEMs, Iomega has secured a place for its Zip drive in Siemens Nixdorf's next line of notebooks, the first range to include the drive.
Later this year, Europe's number three desktop PC company will offer the internal notebook Zip drive as an option in its new range of notebooks. Iomega is currently working on shrinking the unit's motor to fit the notebook's 12.7mm height limit, but machines are expected to be available later this year. "We're working on the 12.7mm [drive] and the only thing sticking out is the motor. That's the only thing that's slowing us down," said Randall Scott, product line manager for Zip, in a recent interview with ZDNet UK.
Finally, at www1.zdnet.com :
Separately, the firm admitted it still had two major hurdles: "A real challenge is [getting] the OEMs [to incorporate Iomega drives]. The thing to do is to get in their face," said Angela Elliot, European marketing director.
Making Zip disks as throwaway as floppy disks is another challenge: "It comes down to clever marketing. Coca-Cola probably wants people to brush their teeth with Coke every morning. It's the same with Zip disks. The secret to [marketing Zip disks] is not to say you're into consumables, while actually moving into consumables."
So let's hope Iomega is up to giving OEM's a lot of "face" time. <g> |
