Hi Trakker,
Though I don't have any additional information on the Jaz, one of my students brought me an interesting article from PC Today, Aug 1996 entitled "STORAGE: The Next Generation."
These are some of the highlights:
REPLACING THE 1.44 MB STANDARD:
"There is little question that the 1.44 MB floppy diskettes is inadequate for today's computing needs. There is a quesiton as to which techonlogy will replace it. The main heirs apparent currently reside it two opposing technological camps. Both sides offer low-cost hardware, high-capacity media and the potential to become universal."
The author, Sean Doolittle goes on talking about the Zip and SyQuest's EZ 135 as the first camp. LS-120 is the second camp. Much of the information cited is provided by Dataquest computer industry analysts. He views Iomega's OEM agreements a strategic plus for Iomega's recent "wild" success. Syquest's attempt to sell its EZ135 at $119 at a higher manufacturing cost lead Dataquest to predict that "at such a low price. SyQuest stands to lose money on every EZ135 it sells, and recent reports seem to confirm this prediction. Dataquest suggest that Ez135 is mainly positioned to lure customers away from floppy-based technology found in Iomega's Zip, toward true hard disk removables such as the $299 EZFlyer, which offers a 230MB capacity. (FMI: 800-245-2278, syquest.com)
The second camp alluded to is the LS-120 technology. "The LS-120 drives write and read to 120MB floppy diskettes at five times the rate of normal diskette drive and the pinnacle difference is that the LS-120 drives will be backwardly-compatible with the 1.44MB."
Trak, I know that I've probably not shared anything really new here. But the article goes on by saying "that the LS-120 is now offered in select DeskPro systems for an extra cost of around $200. Media cost less than $20. (FMI: 800-345-1518, compaq.com)."
But most interesting for you Trakker, and others was the comment by Jerry Meerkatz, vice president of Compaq's PC Options. Mr. Meerkatz said his focus group went out and discoverd among consumers that "our customers tend not to be as concerned with backward-compatibility; therefore the Zip solution is doing quite well in that area." (DID YOU READ THAT? FROM THE COMPAQ VP!!) "But on the commercial side of the business, backward-compatibility is the major discriminating factor. That's why we're committed to the idea the LS-120 has all the potential to become the next standard."
There you have it. They're looking to be the standard, and hope that the consumer will sing to the tune of whatever big business determines is best. What do you think? I personally don't think so. And if that's Compaq's ACE, I think the OEMs Iomega already has make a grand royal flush and would do just fine for me in a game of poker.
The article went on to say that several companies, includeing "MKE, and O. R. T., will roll out LS-120 dirve the rest of this year and the first part of 1997. 3M, recently joined by Maxwell, will provide media. Panasonic is developing a slimlien LS-120 for notebooks, though Meerkatz offered NO PROJECTED TIME-FRAME. MKE and 3M also have announced plans to jointly develop low-profile" (not sure what that is) "LS-120 drives for notebooks."
"Dataquest analyst Phil Devin says, 'Iomega's Zip drive has established a new trend in storage and it would be wise for everyone to recognize the fact, give credit where credit is due, and to on about he business of improving products, costs, and hopefully market share.'"
The article ends with a somewhat non-commital tone favoring LS-120 "if you have a clear need to buy now, look seriously at LS-120," he says, which I read as more of an endorsement than not. Reason being? "Increase your floppy diskette capacity 80 times over,...maintain compatibility with the rest of the world for the same price as the Zip system."
Mr. Doolittle feels that the "'floppy alternative' future is still anybody's game; the longer you can afford to watch it develop from the sidelines, the better your investments will be....This maybe be othe one advantage to the reality that ture DVD functionality has some time to come; storage buyers stand only to benefit over the course of the next year and beyond."
It truly was an interesting article and I think you can access via pc-today. Remember it's the August issue.
Been real busy, and only get to check the thread periodically. Hope this was good reading for some of you. Got get back to hitting the books. Feel free to e-mail me directly any of you, Bob, Young, or Andre. Still long on IOMEGA...
Remember too, that soon the 90 day expiration for those who bought at $35 expires within the next week to ten days. Not sure what impact that will have, just be aware of another buying opportunity.
Later, with warm regards
JMD |
