>>Rumor has it corporate vanity had a more important role in their going hollywood than any rational business sense. Now that they have fallen flat on their face with this silly, consumer oriented campaign we should see more honchos start to fall.<<
More resignations are possible. But KE had such a dominating presence there, the entire mess might be successfully placed at his doorstep alone. The ad campaign is "silly" only in that it is based on a flawed premise. They are trying desperately to make a professional product a consumer one.
Q: Why does Mom need a Zip drive?
A: She doesn't.
But dammit, Iomega's gonna try anyway. They tried, and they are failing. Iomega has expanded the professional base of storage devices, but the uses are the same- for backup of files, for transfer of large files, and for file security. But these functions have nothing to do with everyday life for the Average American. The average American does not use their computers in any sort of "Power" utilization, and therfore has no need for large storage. The Average American will NEVER fill up the 4 Gigabyte hard drive that comes standard with the average computer bought these days. Only professionals, techno geeks, and perverts could ever hope to use this much drive space.
This is the reason Iomega has hit a wall. And when Sony ships, when Orb ships, and when external SparQ ramps, they each will take bites out of this market. Iomega may remain the leader. But a leader with 40% of the market, not 85%. |
