Patricia T., Archie, All: LS120 & Mitsumi updates, ZDS News
1. Matsushita Communication/Iomega deal is good news! I just saw in the latest issue of PCMagazine an ad from Zenith Data Systems Direct
offering a $3000 Pentium 200 system with built in ZIP drive standard.
To the best of my knowledge Z.D.S. was not one of the original OEMs
listed by Iomega. The ad further mentions how Z.D.S. has (not exact wording) "strategic alliance with industry innovators who offer cutting edge technology for the future." IO keep `em coming!!!
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2. In response to the Mitsumi/Swan-Antex lawsuit posted earlier by
Patricia T. & Archie here's what someone mailed to me a couple of
days ago (thanks NealNov & OLAmerican for the info)
Subj: Swan's News Release
Date: 96-09-09 14:22:12 EDT
From: NealNov
The following news release was faxed to me today, I have not been able to find on any of the wires. It may not have been pickedup since Swan is not public. But I did call John Trifari (408) 541-9192 whose name was listed on the release and he sent it to the Dow Jones wire this morning. Eden Kim, Pres. of Swan Instruments phone number is (408) 727-9711
well here goes:
Swan, Mitsumi agree to settle lawsuit long-term agreement sparks new floppy standard.
Santa Clara, CA -- September 9, 1996. Swan Instruments, Inc. today announced that it has agreed to settle its lawsuit with Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd of Japan and Mitsumi Electronics Corp., of New York , and has entered into a long-term business relationship with Mitsumi for the development manufacturing and sale of Ultra High Capacity (UHC) flexible disk drive and media products.
According to Swan President Eden Kim, both companies have agreed to settle all claims and controversies between them and have agreed to work together on a long-term basis to establish a Ultra High Capacity (UHC) floppy disk dries as the next industry standard for flexible disk drives and media. The settlement between Swan and Mitsumi involves monetary payments and an investment in Swan by Mitsumi, as well as joint development and cross licensing arrangements. Under the terms of the settlement Mitsumi will act as the primary disk drive partner, while Swan functions as the primary media supplier. Other details of the settlement were not released.
Together, the two companies will develop a 3.5-inch, 130 MB floppy disk drive and 130 MB diskettes. These new drives will offer greater capacity and performance than present removable disk drives, including the Iomega Zip drives now widely used in desktop systems and portable computers. The drive operates at performance levels associated with hard disk drives, and features non-contact recording for higher reliability. The new drive and the media will be introduced at the upcoming Comdex Show in Las Vegas Nov. 18-22.
The arranngement with Mitusmi follws the signing of letters of intent with Hitachi Maxell of Japan for media production, and with Tottori Sanyo of Japan and Samsung Electromechanics Co. Ltd. of Korea, for drive manufacturing. Swan has also signed a letter of intent with ADO Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd. of Japan for distribution of UHC products throughout Japan and Asia.
Swan is backed by CSK Venture Capital Co., Ltd., a major Japanese venture capital firm. "Including Mitsumi as the prime disk drive manufacturer in the Swan UHC alliance gives us a potential manufacturing capacity with a multiple source supply will allow us to establish a new standard for new high-capacity floppy disk drives and media, and provide a ture alternative for OEM customers.
In Swan Instrument, Inc. headquarters in Santa Clara CA designs and
manufactures advance hard disk drives recording heads test equipment and media products in addition to its line of Ultra High Capacity flexible disk drives.
--- I called three Mitsumi regional offices in New York, Dallas and
Los Angeles. All the people I contacted confirmed that the lawsuit
between Mitsumi and Swan/Antex has been resolved. The Mitsumi Super
Floppy 128 has been completed and will make its second debut at
the upcoming November Comdex show (its first debut was at Comdex `95).
Bill Fischofer in post#6635 brought up an interesting point why there was a lack of information regarding the new drive from Mitsumi. A sales rep for the Dallas office told me that due to legal proceedings
and a gag order from lawyers on both sides during the past year forced Mitsumi not to disclose much information on the product until legal
problems were solved. Folks at Mitsumi mentioned that currently two
very large media manufacturers (sorry they wouldn't give names at
this point) have signed up to manufacturer the disks for the drive.
A sales rep hinted a price of under $100 in QTY of 1000s for the
price of the drive to OEMs which Mitsumi plans to ship in volume shortly after the November Comdex Show.
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3. LS120 shipping dates
In my weekly routine of calling OR Tech. (1-408-866-3000) for LS120 availability, Frank (x213 Sales) has confirmed on two occasions
that the LS120 drive will *finally* ship in volume in the
next couple of weeks to large distributors like Ingram Micro and Tech
Data. His reasoning behind the lack of retail availability for the product here in the US is because the company was manufacturing drives
that were intended for Compaq, European and Asian distributors first. This would support Steve Wiz's very informative post#6698. In the
past couple of weeks, OR Tech has revamped production to fullfill orders placed by US distributors. I've heard a couple of Internet PC hardware resellers starting to sell the LS120. Check out
shoplet.com.
I don't think they're going to sell *ANY* at a ridiculous price of $236.95 (what are they thinking???)
Hyun |
