Another good preview
SyJet tries to do Jaz one better
Matt Hamblen
02/03/97
Attention PC storage hogs: There is now a 1.5G-byte removable cartridge hard drive to hold more Internet downloads, graphic and audio files and valuable data.
Analysts said the SyJet drive from SyQuest Technology, Inc. in Fremont, Calif., will provide head-on competition to the Jaz drive from Iomega Corp. in Roy, Utah. Jaz was released late in 1995.
The external, portable SyJet began selling last month for $499 the same price as Jaz. But SyJet has 50% more capacity per disk than the 1G-byte disks used in Jaz.
"The big difference is 50% more capacity," said Crawford Del Prete, vice president of storage research at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass.
Users will be able to buy the popular Jaz or get more capacity with SyJet, Del Prete said.
UPHILL BATTLE
Beta tester Michael Doriansaid he has been using SyJet to edit and mix up to 16 tracks of music.
"The SyJet drive performed so well that I hardly noticed a difference between it and my fixed drives," said Dorian, owner of MD Productions in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
"The most important issue for me is portability," he said. "I can take it from one postproduction studio to another."
But SyJet will have an uphill battle against Jaz.
Iomega sold about 600,000 Jaz units last year on the back of a huge marketing campaign, Del Prete said.
Still, Del Prete predicted SyJet will be profitable and will help SyQuest recover from difficult times, including the battle it lost against Iomega's Zip drive.
Many Jaz and SyJet drives will be sold to small businesses, but an Iomega official said almost half of Jaz's customers are midsize and large businesses that want to extend hard disks |
