>>Retail Zips go for about $129 -> $149.<<
The price you listed is for externals. (apples and oranges)
I regularly see internal ATAPI Zips for $79.00 And occasionally see them in the $50's.
In fact, I just did a search, and found 3 places selling internals for $54.00 (Universal Computer, AccessMicro, and House of Computers) and another selling them for $55.00 (PCBroker). That's nearly $100.00 less than your $149.00 price.
Are you going to tell me that NONE of these businesses are making any money? And that IOM is taking a loss on EVERYTHING?
I am not doubting that they are willing to, and have, taken a loss on some drives in the past in order to build a strong base to sell disks to. If I remember correctly, they have stated that they made that difference up with the first two disks that were purchased. That would put the loss at a pretty small number per drive.
I also agree that they make more money off retail Zips than the OEMs, That only makes sense. Normally, with any product that you buy in quantity you get a healthy discount. You can see that in action at any of the "Warehouse" stores (Sam's, Costco, etc.)
I will maintain, however that they are NOT taking a loss on ALL OEM drives, and feel that they can still make a profit on the drives being sold in the $50's
>>Anybody know of any 1.5 billion dollar joystick manufacturers? ;)<<
My point was not the size of the company, but the fact that they were not going out of business because they sold their product to OEMs as well as retail..... But, you knew that ;-)
-Ken |
