Allen, *** Long Post ***
<Iomega is shipping more internal Zips now than ever before. It's just that they're all going to the OEMs.>
Yes, that's the story I'm growing impatient with, alright.
<Since the internal Zip was never the drive that mattered in the aftermarket, they're not concentrating on supplying it.>
How do we know that is true if they never have suppled it to the retail market?
<I really do not understand the problem.>
Allen, I respect your wisdom and judgement tremendously, but I'm perplexed why you don't see the lack of internals the way I do. Let me go into some detail on why I see them as critcally important.
1. The Psychology
I have never seen an external floppy in my life. I hear they existed, but the floppy's utility was so great and obvious, they were rapidly adopted and kept inside virtually every PC. I remember when I first saw a 3 1/2" in a PC. It was so cool compared to a 5 1/4" floppy. But if it was an external, I have no doubt I would have thought 'kluge'. "External" is almost synonymous with unnecessary. "Internal" keeps the workspace uncluttered, requires no external power, and gives the look and feel of a fully integrated, standard piece of computer equipment. "External" requires extra attention, and is by it's nature a little eclectic. Internal is always there when you need it, not showy, but reliable and standard fare. We want Zip to replace floppies, but the usefulness of the Zip is partly offset by the hassle of maintaining it as an "external".
2. The Economics
You have mentioned many times that there is greater profit on the externals. But this is probably no longer true. Right now, I can buy a $99 external Zip at Frys, No rebate necessary. When I bought my internal Zip via mail order some months ago, it was $140. Let's assume I can find one for $99 now. Which would give IOM greater profit, a $99 internal or a $99 external?
3. The Boot Drive
Let's face it, if Zip doesn't work well as a boot drive, it can't replace the floppy. In spite of the wonderful MBR programs that let you boot from a PP Zip, it makes a terrible boot device, both because of it's speed, and because if your HD crashes, you can't get to the MBR program to boot from the Zip. Catch 22. The boot drive MUST be completely supported from the BIOS, or it is not a "real" boot device. I am piecing my experimental PC back together this week, and expect to soon have some positive experiences to report back here on booting from my internal Zip. But a few things are unresolved in my mind.
1) How can you boot from a Zip, even when your BIOS supports Zip, if the Zip is read protected? You need the Zip Tools to un-protect the Zip disk, but you need an OS to run the Tools. Catch 22. OK, so you don't ever do something so stupid as read-protecting your boot disk.
2) How about un-write-protecting? Lesser problem, same solution. But consider that a floppy allows you to just move the tab to un-write protect your boot disk.
The way I see it, even internal Zip will not become a standard until there is BIOS support for turning on and off those features that can cripple or prevent booting. Some subset of the Tools software must be supplied to BIOS manufacturers. PP Zip doesn't even stand a chance of getting support from any BIOS manufacturer (IMO).
4. The Speed vs Cost
PP Zip is almost painfully slow. (LS-120 is laughably slow.) SCSI is major hassle for Joe-average-PC-owner, from figuring out which SCSI adaptor, cable and terminator to buy, to what SCSI ID and other CMOS settings to use. Then there's the cost. Let's face it - today's PC, unlike the MAC, is (E)IDE based. Joe-average-PC-owner has one choice, PP. He gets it home, fights to install the guest and tools software, only to find it takes 30 minutes to fill up 100MB. He may be impressed - for about 30 more minutes, then he'll start reading about how fast almost everything else is, and feel vaguely dissatisfied. In short, PP external is too slow, SCSI is too costly, both in time and money. An internal Zip requires a degree of installation hassle in between PP and SCSI, but rewards you by being as cheap as PP (and it should be cheaper) and as fast as SCSI. But most people don't even know this option is available because it is not in the stores. Just through mail order.
I must go now, but think about the problem from these angles. IOM has some more work to do.
And they need to reconsider doing business with those supplier(s) that caused them to lose internal Zip retail sales. 2 quarters and counting.
Best regards.
Ed |
