Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum

WDC 155.64

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Dec 3 3:59 PM EST

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To: Stitch who wrote (4960)	11/10/1998 4:30:00 AM
From: Pierre-X	Read Replies (1) of 9256

I'll offer my opinion on the floppy replacement backward-compatibility issue, since I seem to have a somewhat variant view (as usual). <g> I'm of the personal opinion that, in a desktop machine, backward compatibility is NOT IMPORTANT. Zip will rule the desktop for the forseeable future by virtue of its large installed base. Why? Because 1.44 drives cost $12! (The price of one Zip DISK.) A desktop vendor would simply be stupid to risk the ire of procurement heavyweights simply to shave $12 from a machine. For this reason, I think HiFD will fail. It doesn't have enough of a capacity advantage to make it separately compelling. Since space and power are neglible constraints for desktops, slapping a 1.44 in there is a no-brainer. I'd wager that support costs related to the floppy drive are also insignificant for this venerable, long-proven technology. (Note that the floppy-less iMac is not aimed at the enterprise market.) In notebook land, the story is different. Space, power, and weight are large, ugly demons in this universe. Combining capabilities into a single device makes sense, and explains why LS-120 units are gaining a foothold with most of the large OEMs. What are the chances of squeezing a CD-RW unit into a notebook? Then one could do away with floppies and floppy replacements altogether--a very clean solution, it seems to me. What dyu think?

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