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Technology Stocks : SYQUEST -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Stempson who wrote (4623)	11/2/1997 5:18:00 AM
From: Troy Shaw	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7685

Dale, <<So, what would your opinion be on the possibility of EZ disks working with the SparQ? I believe the EZ drive is a one-head/one-surface product conforming to the PDC standard which allows for upward compatibility to and beyond the SparQ's rumored 1 GB capacity.>> Actually, I would not be surprised at all if SparQ wasn't a derivative of the EZ Flyer. SyQuest had made noise in the past about a 750MB EZ Flyer. Also, considering that SyQuest spent only 2.5 million for R&D last quarter, which is half what they spent in the year ago quarter, they can't be starting from the ground up to often. Assuming the SparQ was backward compatible with the EZ Flyer 230, the head size of the SparQ would be much smaller than the track size of the EZ Flyer. So, any writes would likely require multiple passes and would suffer a sever performance penalty on EZ Flyer 230 media. The real question for SyQuest is, how many EZ Flyers ever sold, and is there a meaningful benefit to adding the extra effort (and possibly cost) to maintain backward compatible with such a small market. Probably not. <<Here's something else to consider: Perhaps the reason why the SparQ disks could be sold at $33 per gig is because Syquest can purchase rejected double-sided media with defects on one side, and then make use of the other (good) side. >> I don't think this would work, unless SyQuest is moving to MR Heads on the SparQ. Today, single platter 3 1/2s (as used in Jaz) can hold 1GB (512MB per side.) That is why the Jaz 2GB is a 2GB drive -- 2 platters. Besides, that was a stupid idea of SyQuest's, thinking that they could meet any significant demand for cheap cartridges, by using rejects. Imagine, if that was what Iomega had planned on with Zip....

To: Dale Stempson who wrote (4623)	11/2/1997 9:31:00 AM
From: Michael Coley	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7685

RE: SyQuest Obsoletes Products. If you want to see the true impact to the consumer, look through some price lists of cartridges for SyQuest's previously obsoleted products [when you can even find them]. The cartridges in many cases are about the same price as a Zip drive (which includes a cartridge!). That's a great way to treat existing customers... It has to make current EZ and SyJet owners wonder, as well. Maybe they think "It's different this time", though. Some sample prices for obsolete SyQuest Cartridges that I've seen: 3 1/2" 105MB for $88.50 3 1/2" 270MB for $97.90 5 1/4" 44MB for $69.90 5 1/4" 200MB for $95.20 (Iomega Zip Drives have been spotted for as low as $89!) - Michael Coley - i1.net