🚀 go-pugleaf

John Anderson (johna@magicnet.net) wrote:
: As for the ZIP drive establishing a defacto standard, I believe that it is
: too early to make that prediction.  Prices on removable media drives (MO drives)

It tends to always too early to make a prediction. However:

* The Zip drive is cheap. $199 for a drive with 100MB, and $159 for an 
internal version (I don't know if that includes a disk, however). That's 
not too bad: If they unbundled the disk the price could drop $15 or $20.

* So far, no Mac or Mac clones come with EZ options, but a Zip option is 
available (and included) in PowerWave machines for a start. (RE: Your Mac 
arguement)

* I am one of a number of Mac users that I know of who went to the Zip 
in part *because* of my years of experience with SyQuest.

* Zip disks are cheaper ($14.95 each in a ten pack) and even a cent less 
per MB when compared to SyQuest EZ carts. Further, Zip disks are most 
likely to drop in price while EZ carts are most likely to stay the same 
or go up. As I've said before, SyQuest EZ cartridges are nearly identical 
to the 270MB carts that sell for $80 - I doubt the price difference is 
justified.

: with large capacities (1/2 GIG or more) have been dropping like rocks.  

Regaredless, they will not be viable alternatives to the floppy. The Zip 
drive is intended largely as a replacement of the floppy drive.

: Sysquest (the EZ 135 people) have been serving the Apple market for years 

See above.

: and have a line of higher capacity drives as well.  I choose the EZ 135 

So? They aren't compatible as far as media, so what advantage does a 
higher capacity drive offer? Iomega has a higher capacity drive (the Jaz 
drive) which is faster and hold 1GB per cartridge. Iomega reports over 
6MB per second transfer rates.

: because it represented a price & performance level that would allow me to 

However, the Zip drive comes out to slightly LESS per megabyte than the 
EZ drive when you buy in packs of ten. 25MB disks will be even less 
(meaning something companies can send out with demo software without 
taking a huge loss) and performance... I don't have my figures readily 
available, but on rather large transfers (>5MB) the difference was a 
matter of seconds (SCSI drives, of course).

: afford to buy several drives and get the performance I needed.  I figure
: that within the next 12 months 1/2 to 1 gig removable disks will be in
: that price range and I'll be moving up.

Perhaps, but there needs to be a replacement of the current 2MB 3.5" floppy 
drive. I think the Zip wins. I also think no matter what you buy in the 
future, it's going to come with a standard high capacity drive just as 
systems come with 2MB 3.5" drives today.

The market for high capacity removable storage isn't the point with the 
Zip drive. Replacing a floppy technology that should have died years ago 
- that's the point.