While there is always price presure on PCs, there is also the presure to add value. The 1.44 Mb floppy has very little value in a PC today. In fact, if your PC comes pre-loaded with Win95, the floppy is only an emergency boot device.
A Zip drive is a real value in a modern multi-media PC because it can actually hold your files.
I think it is very likely that PC makers will switch to Zip drives. Look at how many PC makers configure their top-of-line systems with the very fastest Video adaptors, fast/large hard disks, 6x and 8x CD-ROM drives, etc. The Zip drives will (have!) enter via the high-end PCs, the migrate down the line to virtually all PCs, except the $500-1000 low end.
"In the short term, isn't the trend toward writeable CDROM/DVD as common denominator for consumer devices?" CDR (recordable) is still a specialty item at $1000-1800. Not that many people need to burn their own CDs. Also, CDR is write once. Not really a competitor to Zip.
DVD is still at least two years away. Recordable DVD even further. The lawyers and politicians have got their hands on DVD and will delay it, just like they have HDTV.
"And in the far future (a decade or so) will..." Sorry, but I have enough trouble looking one to two years ahead in this business. Nobody (repeat, NOBODY) knows where this industry is going to be in 10 years. The Internet has been around over 20 years. Who prediected it would be a phenomenon starting in 1995, and when did they predict it? |
