Kel -
You are right. This is definitely getting out of hand.
Earlier today, someone posted a news release about Mitsubishi. That person completely misinterpreted what the news release said, applied his usual completely screwy logic to it, then apparently went into a manic state, posting again and again about how Iomega was now going to have to do without Fuji media and is therefore doomed.
The thing is, though, that the news release in question does NOT say that Iomega is looking to use another manufacturer to make Zip disks. Here's the relevant text, directly from the release, as originally quoted:
"Nikkei English News via NewsEdge Corporation : TOKYO (Nikkei)- Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. plans to enter the Zip-disk business, marketing the disks in Japan, the U.S. and Europe by year-end.
"The firm will be supplied on an original-equipment-manufacturing (OEM) basis with Zip disks from their U.S. developer, Iomega Corp.
"Fuji Photo Film Co. (4901) now makes the internal magnetic media for Zip disks, which Iomega assembles in a case and markets. Iomega also supplies the disks on an OEM basis to Fuji Photo Film, Hitachi Maxell Ltd. (6810) and others."
At first, Mitsubishi Chemical will be supplied on an OEM basis as well, but the firm is also pushing development of its own media in order to cut into the supply sourced from Fuji Photo Film."
Read this carefully. The first paragraph says that Mitsubishi is going to start selling Zip disks. The second paragraph says that the disks will be supplied by Iomega on an OEM basis. This is the same arrangement that Iomega has with Verbatim, Maxell, and others.
The last paragraph states that Mitsubishi is planning to develop "its own media to cut into the supply to cut into the supply sourced from Fuji Photo Film." The words "the firm" in that paragraph refer to Mitsubishi, not to Iomega.
Iomega is not pushing Mitsubishi to develop media. Mitsubishi wants to make their own rather than buying from a competitor, namely Fuji. To make the logical leap from there to the conclusion that Iomega will suddenly no longer be able to use Fuji media is ridiculous. Fuji wants to sell as much media as they can. They are in that business. That is what they do. See? They have no reason to stop selling media to Iomega.
It is also silly to assume that just because Nomai did not succeed in developing Zip media which were up to Iomega's standards, Mitsubishi won't be able to. Mitsubishi is a much larger company than Nomai, with far greater resources. Moreover, this news release appears to indicate that they will have cooperation from Iomega in developing their media.
I say "appears to indicate" because the release is ambiguously worded. This may have something to do with it being translated from the original Japanese. I don't think that the release is quite clear on the subject of the media.
Several months ago, when Iomega announced that Nomai's XHD disks could damage Zip drives, our manic bear didn't believe them. He said that Iomega was just desperate to prevent users from exercising their right to buy less expensive Zip-compatible disks.
Now, suddenly, he believes that any Zip drive using any media other than that of Fuji will fail. This goes along with this individual's record for interpreting any piece of news as hugely negative for Iomega, even if that means contradicting his own earlier negative interpretations.
The fact is, in the last two weeks there have been two announcements from big companies who were going into the business of selling Zip disks, and one announcement, from NEC, that they were investing a lot of money to ramp production of Zip drives. How can this be anything but good news for Iomega? To consider this to be good news is certainly not a matter of putting a "spin" on it. But perhaps when one is very, very dizzy, one sees things spinning when they aren't.
- Allen
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