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

To: OrionX who wrote (1479)	11/12/1997 12:45:00 PM
From: Jerome Wittamer	Respond to of 60323

Discussion on n.hand begins at message 120 on this thread. Here's an exerpt. Nov 7, 1996 (yes 1996) : Message from F. Keeler to X : I think you summed up many of the questions that remain about n.hand. >Size. Half a business card is very misleading. What is the height of >the unit? The disk is no more wide than half the width of an adult man's finger. Call it no more than 1/2 an inch or 1.25 mm. The drive is probably 3X that or 4 mm. >2) Power. The reason there are flash hard-drives today is because of >the power demands of a mechanical storage device Obviously one factor in flash memory's favor. Although it is the non-volatility of the memory chips that make them so expensive relative to DRAM. >What will be the cost of 20 meg flash vs. n-Hand. Based on past Iomega products and announcements I would say that its $10. This might be $10 for a 3-pack or something. >Using the flash solution you eliminate the need for each device to >incorporate a hard drive (the flash does everything) There is cost to adding flash card reading compatibility. Iomega said on a CNBC interview that it isn't much cheaper than $100. I think for SanDisk the question becomes: do customers need unlimited small factor storage? It is cheaper to dump the flash card to a hard drive or even a full sized Zip disk than to keep buying n.hand disks. >Will a photographer want to go to a site with 18 blanks (try to write >labels on disks that size) or would they prefer a 360 meg flash card? This is why I think there is room for SanDisk and Intel at the professional user level. Plenty of money to be made there. But will a retail consumer rather spend $295 for more 20 MB flash memory or $10 for more 20 MB n.hand memory. Remember, this consumer might not own a PC. >Put another way three years from now, how does someone with a n-Hand >device upgrade? A flash card can be purchased at a store and used >just like the previous one. The n-Hand will need to be sent into the >manufacturer. I don't see this as an issue. As larger n.hand drives and disks become available, backwards compatibility will be maintained. This will give 40 MB n.hand customers the option of 20 or 40 MB disks. 20 MB disks will still be around to buy. At $5-$10 a 20 MB disk it doesn't demand instant upgrading to higher MBs. >5) Environment. A flash card can drop from a height of 8 feet onto >concrete with no damage... try that with a zip drive. A Zip disk can sustain that fall easily. Zip disks are actually more rugged than 3.5" floppy disks. I think the camera would break before the Zip drive/disk. >6) Production. When is the Iomega device really going to ship? To meet the announced timeschedule of OEM acceptance (3Q97 - 4Q97) the n.hand will have to ship 2Q97-3Q97. Not many products/vaporware ship on time from any technology company though.

To: OrionX who wrote (1479)	11/12/1997 12:52:00 PM
From: Jerome Wittamer	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 60323

To: Marc Phelan (119 ) From: JF Quinnelly Thursday, Nov 7 1996 4:01PM EST Reply #123 of 1483 Competition from Iomega? Thursday November 7 11:49 AM EST Iomega( Iomega Corp )plans low-cost minature data storage ROY, Utah, Nov 7 (Reuter) - Iomega Corp said it plans to develop a new storage technology to be built into handheld consumer electronics devices that is an order of magnitude less expensive than flash memory now used in such devices. Iomega said the system could be used in digital cameras, game devices, cellular phones and personal digital assistants. The new storage technology, to be known as "n-hand," is expected to be priced at less than $10 per 20 megabyte disk. Danielle Levitas, a data storage analyst at International Data Corp, said that at $10 per disk, the device would cost less than one megabyte of flash memory chip technology. Levitas, who had been briefed by the company on its plans for the technology, said Iomega has transformed the existing high-density floppy drive technology it uses in its current products and "taken it to the next level." In a statement, Iomega said it anticipates that consumer electronic devices using the n-hand technology will be available as soon as the second half of 1997. It said n-hand will make it easier to save and transfer data between a cell phone and a digtal camera or a personal computer. For example, a reporter in the field could snap a picture and send it over a cell phone to an office computer for processing. A digital camera could store from 70 to 80 images on a single $10 n-hand disk, Iomega said. Currently consumers pay hundreds of dollars for a flash memory card capable of holding the same number of images, it noted. Kim Edwards, Iomega's president and chief executive said that, "Our n-hand technology ... has the potential to change the way consumers use portable electronic devices." Iomega said the n-hand disks are about half the size of a business card and capable of storing 20 megabytes of data. ----- It seems they took some time before being able to release it! What's obvious is IOM's will to become a major player in this market. The slice of the pie is getting smaller for SNDK. Is it? Please help!? Hopefully we have MMC! The size constraint is making me wonder whether IOM can really compete in this market. I'm almost sure they can't. How could they come to a technology that's smaller than flash memory with more capacity and lower price? Let's see but let me have serious doubts. Any comments appreciated.