Gottfried, All -
Re: Orb's success or lack thereof
Is Orb more advanced technologically than Jaz? Yes. Of course it is. Iomega developed the Jaz drive four years ago. It was the first high capacity removable hard drive storage device. It created a whole new market.
Any device which is the first in a wholly new market has certain cost burdens. The initial high price of Jaz, and the current price, to some extent reflect this.
Orb was developed by people who had already seen Jaz. They had the opportunity to take it apart and see how it was built. I'm sure that for people who had their own experience in making removable disk drives, improving on Jaz was not too difficult. I don't believe that this makes Castlewood invincible.
Now, if Castlewood can build and sell a 2.2GB removable hard disk device profitably for the prices they charge for Orb, there is no reason to believe that Iomega cannot also do it. No one has more experience making magnetic removable storage devices.
When Iomega made the Jaz2, they decided that it should be compatible with Jaz, so that buyers of Jaz media wouldn't be left out in the cold. That decision makes sense in many ways. It also meant that the Jaz2 had to use two platters, which adds to the cost of the drive and the media. It could not use MR technology.
We've all been hearing the rumors that Iomega has a new single-platter, lower cost 2GB device in the wings and they are considering the timing of its release. This may or may not be true, but there's no reason to think that it's impossible.
If Iomega introduces such a product, it will have major advantages over Orb in terms of marketing. Yes, current Jaz owners would be faced with a decision over whether or not to upgrade, knowing that the new media would be incompatible. It's the same decision they face with respect to Orb. These kinds of decisions are inevitable as technology changes.
As I said, if Castlewood can sell a 2.2GB MR removable drive and disks profitably at those prices, then Iomega can too. If Castlewood is not making a profit, then they will go the way of SyQuest. I'm sure that in the meantime, thousands of Iomega customers, or potential customers might by Orb instead of Jaz. But it certainly remains to be seen who will win out in the long run.
- Allen |
