Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Si_Detective who wrote (10981)	5/11/2000 3:05:00 PM
From: Rocky Reid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

>>Mini disk drive(like IBM or Iomega's) vs. solid state storage ? << Disk drives use too much battery power and take up too much space to be practical in most portable devices. The Sony Mavica is the largest digital camera on the market and needs special big and expensive Lithium-ion batteries to work. Same thing with Iomega's Clik drive. In addition, most OEM's are very wary of designing mechanical disk drives in their products for reliability concerns. Why use devices with moving parts when with today's technology it isn't needed? Moving parts tend to break far more easily than solid-state. Another large concern for OEM's is the cost $$$ of the disk drive must be absorbed by the OEM and passed onto the consumer- this means a higher price point for the MP3 player, digital camera, etc. Just look at Iomega's Clik drive for a perfect example. The only camera to use it is the Agfa CL30. The CompactFlash version of the CL30 sold for $349 MSRP last Winter. At the same time, the Iomega CLik version CL30 camera (exact same camera except with a Clik drive in it) was $549 MSRP, or $200 more. IN addition, adding the Clik drive added at least 50% to the bulk and size of the camera, making it an ugly bloated mess of a design. Sales have been perfectly awful for this disk drive Iomega/Agfa camera due to its high price point compared to solid-state CF cameras. The Mavica is only successful purely because the 1.44 floppy disk is pervasive and everywhere. But recent sales info indicates that the Mavica has topped out in sales and is headed downward. Disk drives in portable devices currently have a very limited role, and that role is diminishing as we speak. Is solid state technology like Sandisk CompactFlash, SD, and MMC that OEM's love because of its high reliability and small form factor. Production of Flash technologies are just getting ramped up so prices to OEM's and consumers are sure to fall with it making price comparisons between disk drives and Flash irrelevent.