Hello IOM lovers ... I just bought IOM, the zip drive and not the stock. Here's my stake on the future of IOMEGA. It is on life support for another year.
Like I said, I bought a zip drive parallel with the 6 disk kit. Not a bad price and should go lower in the coming months to fend of competition. The SONY drive will not kill the ZIP ... yet. But at a certain price point, buyers of new PC's will ask themselves, for an extra $100, would it pay to put the Sony super floppy instead of the regular floppy. As this 'extra' becomes lower and lower and as more manufacturers embrace the cartridge and it goes to below $10 per, which I anticipate by next year, then why would anyone bother with the ZIP.
Well, I just bought one, because the Sony drive is still expensive. But in another year, when I'm ready to buy a new PC, it's going to have the Sony drive built in. Then what will I do with the ZIP. Don't forget, this is a sure way of exchanging data with the other ZIP's out there. Question is, will ZIP owners switch? I'm willing to bet on that. They have made full use of their ZIP drives and it's time for an upgrade. No new disks will be purchased and this will surely hurt IOMEGA. more than the floundering drive sales.
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