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Non-Tech : Any info about Iomega (IOM)? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Neville who wrote (54040)	5/2/1998 7:47:00 AM
From: Mel Boreham	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 58324

Robert, "Among Lots of Other Things." I believe that your assessment is a good one. KE mentioned in one of his CCs that Sony/Teac were going to find that two heads are not necessarily better than one! IOM has been doing lots of Lab and Development work on enhancements to the Zip and Jaz drives and I am sure that they have looked into the possibility of providing "backward compatibility" to another Zip product, one that would read and write Zip disks and also read and write 1.44 floppies. If they haven't at least experimented with this they would not be doing their job. The old adage, Keep it Simple Stupid! "KISS" is the better way to go in most things. By adding another head that must come in contact with the media (1.44 floppies) and at the same time have another flying head that reads the 200 MB Hi-fud media seems to greatly complicate the Sony/Teac drive. Not only do you have two heads to worry about (one or the other becoming damaged would ruin the entire functionality of the drive), but you have the "very complicated" speed controller electronics that must be ready to change speeds at a moments notice, with all the problems of spin down and spin up times to contend with. All this, and if IOMEGA didn't have its 200 MB or greater density Zip drives ready for the manufacturing lines, then again they would be suspect of having too many coffee breaks or not hiring good R & D people. I don't think there are very many fools at this company and it is still a force to be reckoned within this very specialized marketplace. Again, as you mention, the installed base of Zip drives represents a very high wall that Sony/Teac will have to breach and it ain't gonna be easy! IOMEGA has always stated that they will bring out new products as the market demands and in response to credible competition. So far, Hi-fud is still VAPOR WARE until it is on the market long enough for the Customer Service lines to LIGHT UP! And I do think that there are going to be technical problems with this much more complicated device and media. The whole idea of "backwards compatibility" is a ruse! Who in his right mind would use that as a criteria to choose this drive over the Zip drive. It didn't work for the Super Disk LS-120 and it won't work for the Hi-fud drive either in my humble opinion! Who uses 1.44 floppies any more, other than for office frizzbies or coffee coasters. Yes, I know, there ARE still some software distributed on them, but much much less than just a year or so ago. Now just about everything is distributed on CD-ROM as has been stated many times on this thread. Why also worry about having a new $200 drive with a feature that you already have... ALL COMPUTERS NOW COME WITH A 1.44 floppy drive BUILT IN. So why do you need this capability (of limited use) in your new fancy drive? I just don't see the Added Value here, just as all those 14 MILLION folks who bought a Zip drive instead of that new shiny LS-120 drive that has more capacity than the Zip and also has that mystical "backwards compatible" feature. Yes, Sony has a name for quality and innovation, but it has also had its failures with new products. Not every product has had the success of the PlayStation and the Walkman. How many "Watchman" portable TVs do you see people carrying? How many new cars come with Sony MiniDisks built-in? Try going to your local BlockBuster Video and pick up the newest flicks on Betamax! Sony does make good stuff and I have a lot of TVs with that brand name on them, as well as portable audio cassette machines too. But, I don't think that the Hi-fud drive is going to be an instant hit. After all, others have mentioned in past posts, "just how much memory capacity to you really need on your removable storage media?" I have used the analogy in the past that a Zip disk is like a brief case, just about the right size that it will hold anything you might want to share, bring home , archive, "shoebox data and digital photos", and use for large file downloads from the internet. One does not need a "sea trunk" to carry with them if a brief case is all that they really need. So just how much more "value added" is there for the customer and user to have that extra 100 MB of data on a single disk. Sure you will have to buy fewer disks, BUT HEY, ISN'T THIS WHERE THE MONEY IS? Its in the Disks Stupid! If you sell less disks for about the same price as the 100 MB Zip, you are making LESS MONEY! Even if Sony/Teac give away the drives (loss leader marketing) where are they going to make their money? By selling HALF THE NUMBER OF DISKS? I don't know, but its food for thought... Long on IOM and Patiently Holding, Mel