<< Do you know that for a fact?! I would expect that the cost would be somewhat higher than for a standard floppy drive, but I don't believe that the OEM price would be 10x as much. I would expect the OEM price to be less than $50.00 (US). >>
OEM price for floppy drives are around $18.
Lets say I give you that point. Let's say it's $50 OEM for CLIK!. Now they have to get 20% of the digital camera market to get 100m in revenues! See! It's the ZIP 'treadmill' effect again. Also, can Iomega make a profit at $50 OEM?
It's a closed-end system. When you want it one way, you must look at the other effects. If you want high margins (= high OEM prices) your penetration is low. If you want high penetration, you must drop prices, which puts pressure on margins.
The bullish arguments for CLIK! sound 'nice', but they are never backed up with data/logic supporting these suppositions. The digital camera market is much smaller than the PC market, and is not really given to 'options'. Comparing CLIK! to ZIP is ludicrous. ZIP is 'successful' (depending on your definition) because PC makers can offer ZIPs as an option, therefore passing the factory cost onto the consumer. Digital cameras will be bought off the shelf. THE STORAGE INTERFACE COST CANNOT BE HIDDEN. period. This is true whether the storage is film, floppies, flash cards, memory sticks, CLIK! disks, etc.. To keep margins and price points, the manufacturer will need to keep factory costs down. Hence, one of my biggest arguments against the built-in CLIK! Watch how it plays out! You'll see.
ZIP has been a great model to learn from, but no bull is doing it:
1. You cannot widely displace a cheaper storage mechanism to create a standard.
2. You cannot rely on the OEM model to make money.
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