Dale -
I can't find my notes from the shareholders meeting. Immediately following
the Rocket demo (just prior to starting the official meeting), Chairman
Marinaro gave a small description of the Rocket and stated something to the
effect that "in conjuction with IBM, Headway, XXX, and YYY we have been
developing the Rocket platform you have just witnessed." This is not a literal
translation but rather a recollection of events. The press release announcing
the Rocket on the SYQT web site states essentially the same thing. I can't
remember the names of the other companies he mentioned, however there was at
least one other. The way he said it made it sound as though the relationship
between these several companies was somewhat exclusive. I can't say that for
certain, however I have not heard of another drive company other than IBM that
is currently talking about incorporating IBM's PRML technology into their drives.
In reference to release of the Syjet, rumors early in '96 stated that this drive
be available by the end of summer '96. As August roled around the date for release
kept being pushed back by one or two months each time. I remember this quite vividly
as I owned the stock in early '96, and attended the shareholders meeting in Feb. where
Iftakar first described this drive (blazingly fast). His expectation at that time was
for release of the drive in "late summer". At that time this didn't seem like too long
to wait since the Jaz drive was not really available until almost April of '96. What
was most disturbing was that several computer mags ran adds for the Syjet in Oct/Nov/Dec
but the drives were not available. IMO this also hurt the credibility of the company
and allowed IOMegan detractors to dismiss the Syjet as vaporware.
Regards, Dumar |
