All -
(Long. I got carried away.)
Looking through the current (Feb. 10) issue of PC Magazine, I am amazed at how many times the words Zip and Jaz appear. They occur in articles, and in ads for computers from Micron, Dell, Umax, etc. Both Zip and Jaz are mentioned in an ad for an Uninterruptible Power Supply. In that ad, zip is not capitalized, as if it's just a generic item one would have on a computer, but Jaz is.
There's also mention of Zip in the SyQuest ad for SparQ. I guess that answers the question of whether SyQuest is targeting SparQ toward potential Jaz or Zip buyers. The answer is, both.
No question, the competition is really starting to heat up. But since the removable storage market is growing like a happy weed, Iomega will be able to continue to grow earnings for quite some time.
I was going to try to count all the references to Zip and Jaz in this magazine, but I really don't have that kind of time.
Just to give you an idea:
Back cover, Dell ad - a computer with Zip standard
Inside front cover, fold-out NEC ad - five out of seven featured desktop models have Zip standard, and Zip is also mentioned as an add-on for $99.
Page 5, Micron ad - Two Millennia models featured, of course both have Zip
Table of contents, letters to the editor, etc., then
Page 31, another NEC ad - mostly notebooks and servers, but also four desktop machines, three with Zip standard
Pages between 36 and 37, a tabbed multipage Micron ad - Zip in all Millennia models (starting at $1,599), and Jaz standard on the higher-end Powerdigm.
Page 47, in the Editor's Choice box for the Micron TransPort XKE, chosen as the best of the new crop of 266MHz notebooks, is a very interesting mention. They are talking about the runners up: "We were particularly impressed by the NEC Versa 6260's VersaBay II. This multipurpose bay can hold a variety of optional accessories, namely a 20X CD-ROM drive, floppy disk drive, a second battery or hard disk, a Zip drive, or an LS-120 drive.
(I have a 200MHz Micron XKE and I love it, BTW. As one of the kids in the operations department at work says, it's the buttery bomb.)
I won't go on much longer, but the list certainly does. Note that within the magazine space I have covered so far, including all the pages in between, there are no mentions of any competitor's products until that one about the LS-120.
The next competing product has to wait until page 81, where there's a "Second Looks" story about the Avatar Shark. The story says that they left the disk in the Shark drive while travelling, and both the disk AND drive were damaged. They recommend taking the disk out while travelling. Overall, they are still positive about the Shark, as they were when it first came out.
Poor SyQuest has to wait until page 87, where John Dvorak's article about "The Fight to be the New Floppy Disk" appears. As we know, Mr. Dvorak assumes that the HiFD will ship at a competitive price, and says that "The 230MB SyQuest EZ Flyer and other small-capacity removables systems will be dead meat." But he does not include the Zip in the dead meat category.
And BTW, he mentions the word Zip six times, and Iomega by itself a couple more.
Interestingly, on page 89, Dvorak (in his Inside Track column) discusses Comdex. He mentions Quest, saying (emphasis his), "The blank disks will be $199 each, making it one of the cheapest deals out there. SyQuest has an incredible line of drives but can't seem to get backward compatibility with older products. It's getting confusing. But the drives are fantastic."
Then he goes on to say, "Though SyQuest is going to large capacities, Iomega is going small with the introduction of its new Click (sic) drive - dinky 40MB drive. At its booth, it was handing out huge chocolate bars and little "clickers" - those things you push with your thumb to make a froggy, clicking sound. I guess everyone was jazzed on the chocolate, because all around the booth you heard this incessant manic clicking. Great publicity stunt."
OK. Now I'm really going to stop. I think my point is made.
- Allen |
