Jeffrey, I think you missed the point of the original post comparing Iomega, Microsoft and Intel. There are parallels to be drawn between the position Iomega is in today, and the positions of Intel and Microsoft at certain points in the past.
That doesn't mean that there are no differences between these three companies, though. On the other hand, if Iomega succeeds in creating the new standard for removable storage, then at some point in the future you will no more likely to have a PC without a Zip drive than you will to have one without and Intel chip or a Microsoft OS.
Mind you, I'm not saying that they will succeed in this, but it looks more and more like they have a decent shot at it.
Another interesting parallel between Microsoft in the early 80's and Iomega today is that Microsoft became successful because of their close association with larger, more powerful companies. To wit, IBM. Iomega appears to be implementing the same strategy.
One more thing. It is perfectly possible to compute without Microsoft and Intel. Even in the PC world, I can run Linux on a Cyrix chip, just as an example. Or I can just buy a Mac. Or a Sun. Or an HP Unix workstation. Or a Silicon Graphics machine.
Iomega doesn't have to be absolutely the only game in town in order to succeed. And I do believe that DVD won't compete with Iomega products for until is fully rewritable, fast and inexpensive. Which I don't believe will happen less than three years.
We still don't even have re-writable CDs. Only write-once. And they're slow as hell.
- Allen
PS: I do realize that the Cyrix/Linux example is rather silly. Sure it's possible, but why would one want to make things so difficult for oneself?
PPS: Please do not take this post as any kind of flame job. I'm just interested in discussing viewpoints. I'm glad people are still willing to take negative positions in this thread. If I only wanted to hear my own opinion, I wouldn't hang around here. |
