>>I don't see any acceleration in Zip sales. Couple of posts back, i have justified that the current rate is 1M/month.<<
Senthil -
Although in the past the figure of 1M Zips a month has been thrown around on this thread based on milestone announcements, at no point has Iomega actually supplied sales figures to support it. I believe the largest number of Zips actually sold in any quarter, according to figures from Iomega, is 2.7 million, or about 900,000 Zip drives per month.
Milestone announcements or the lack thereof are not an accurate way to gauge the rate of unit sales. We'll know the current sales rate for sure when numbers are reported in January. If it turns out to actually be a million Zip drives a month, though, that will be an improvement over all previous quarters.
OK, wait. I just checked the figures on Iomega's web site. The most Zip units sold in a quarter is 2,646,000 (rounded off, obviously) in Q4 of 1997. In 1998, the numbers are: Q1 - 1,856,000; Q2 - 1,966,000; Q3 - 2,361,000.
These figures equate to year-over-year unit growth of 37%, 44% and 30%, respectively. So it's clear that sales growth, measured in units, continues. The fourth quarter is the big one. This should be the first quarter in which Iomega actually cracks the million-a-month barrier.
What this will mean in terms of profits is still an open question.
- Allen |
