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Tuesday, November 05, 1996 Iomega was up $1/4 Monday, closing at $21 1/8 (+1.20%). TODAY'S RECAP: Can you say Compaq? On Monday, CNF Incorporated, a designer and manufacturer of portable computer peripherals, announced its new InnerBay Zip -- a Zip drive designed to fit into Compaq laptop computers. Says the CNF news release, "The InnerBay(TM) Zip drive fits directly into the multifunction peripheral bay, 'MultiBay,' of the Compaq LTE 5000 notebook computer. It also plugs directly into the Compaq MultiBay docking station for the LTE 5000 Family. The InnerBay Zip drive will behave like any other MultiBay peripheral." It will sell for $299 and should be available in the first quarter of 1997. As always, the complete news release is available to America Online members at Keyword: Market News. Lest we jump to conclusions, remember that this new product is decidedly not an OEM agreement with Compaq. Compaq, a key player in the LS-120 consortium, has made no suggestion that it is abandoning the LS-120 drive, and may in fact have no involvement in the CNF product at all. However, it is probably safe to admit that the new InnerBay Zip is a strong indication that, at least for now, consumers are demanding Zip drives as the predominant solution to their removable storage needs, despite Compaq's involvement with the competing drive. Meanwhile, the weekend rumors about Gateway proved true... Iomega products are now available to customers buying Gateway systems. No formal announcement to that effect was made by either Gateway or Iomega, however. And if all this were not enough, the Iomega rumor mill is still churning away. Monday night ~Cynicalguy~ listed some possible new products Iomega may be offering soon. The reliability -- and even the plausibility -- of this information is in question, but CG's post did result in an interesting, if highly hypothetical, discussion of digital photography and large-capacity storage. Just another crazy day amongst those wacky, wired, Internet Iomega kooks... INDEX: Use the Search or Find feature of your word processor to locate the article number (Find: 1++, 3++, etc.) -- or use AOL's Edit>>Find in Top Window Feature. If Find in Top Window is dimmed, just click on some text, anything, in the IOMG Today window and try again.
1++NOVWOO speculates about OEMs and Zip production. And now, the Best of the Board...Started 3 a.m. 11/4/96.
1+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Gateway 2000? Date: 96-11-04 05:36:56 EST From: NOVWOO
I and others have posted a few months back about a possible OEM situation. It might be that more OEMs were willing to sign up with Iomega than Iomega had internal Zips to supply them. It was not the OEMs who didn't want to sign. It was Iomega who couldn't guarantee the later OEMs with the production and supply numbers of internal Zips.
Recently, if I recall correctly, it was revealed that IBM had to bundle external Zips because IBM couldn't get enough internal Zips from Iomega. The several posts yesterday suggesting Gateway 2000 may be about to sell *external* Zips and internal Jazs seem to also collaborate with the IBM report. For some reasons (strong demands?) the OEMs simply couldn't wait anymore and they are happy to take the external units earlier rather than the internal ones later.
Internal Zips may be selling very well for those OEMs who are currently including Zips in their boxes (like PB, HP,...). Therefore, there may be a waiting list, backlogs or allocations for newer OEMs. Why is Iomega not making more internal Zips? There is every belief that Iomega is doing exactly that.
I could speculate that earlier Iomega was purposely making more external Zips for bigger profit margins, particularly if the external units were selling very well and are continuously selling very well right now. But now it is also time "to get insider the box" for the ultimate conquering of the market as Iomega may be shifting towards more production of internal units. Balancing between growing profits and growing market shares is what we are witnessing now. I believe Iomega is doing the best job humanly possible. This is a very nice problem to have if we can call it that. Or, the Q4 "challenge".
Gateway 2000 announcement if true today will be very good news indeed. 2+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:Ditto Tape: Get rid of i Date: 96-11-04 06:29:29 EST From: Ind Sales
You State:<<Zip remains a good story, but should Iomega get out of the desktop tape drive business? Zip is replacing back-up on the desktop.>>
While I cannot respond to your earnings theories regarding tape units, I can respond to the above statement. A 100MB ZIP, even 200MB will never replace a tape backup. Tape backups are very valuable to everyone, due to their immense storage capacity and speed.
I hardly think anyone wants to backup to a ZIP when they can use 3-5 GB tape drives. The ditto is a very inexpensive units to safely backup your entire system. Although not extremely fast, it certainly runs circles around the ZIP.
Every product has its place, and the Ditto's is backup. Personally, I find most of the ZIP's value in file transfers. Great for shipping large files, and even whole directories. Will hopefully be great for laptops as well. I don't have much other use for the ZIP, except to store large archive directories maybe, tax returns, so on. My stuff.
With 3-5 Gigabyte hard drives available, especially the fast SCSI drives, the Zip cannot be expected to be a storage solution, just a part of an overall data strategy. The JAZ drive, on the other hand, is invaluable for people that have two systems in different locations.
IMHO, Iomega must become the leader in all storage areas for strong growth to continue past 1998. The alliance with Seagate is interesting. The lion's share of the market can be had not by the Zip, which will grow in use (primarily due to OEM's) but decline in %age of operating profits, but with JAZ, backup devices, and Hard Drives.
If Iomega were to offers 2GB JAZ drives, 4-5 GB FAST backups with appropriate software (say Arcserve), as well as 3-5 GB hard drives, then they will become the storage leader. For now, they remain a very well-managed niche player within the industry. Niches are nice too!
Steve Hinchey
IND SALES 3+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:Gateway Comes Aboard Date: 96-11-04 11:15:41 EST From: EBJKY
I made one other call to Gateway this morning. I called their international sales department. Amazingly, they connected me with sales reps in Dublin, Ireland. I was trying to get a lead on whether Gateway is offering IOMG products in Europe. Gateway has retail stores in Europe. Customers walk in, choose their products, then call sales which is located in Dublin, Ireland. Gateway has stores in 3 German cities, Paris, England, and the distribution/sales center is in Dublin. Anyway, the news wasn't very good. I talked to a sales rep from the U.K. and one from Germany. Both told me that IOMG Ditto is for sale thru European retail centers, but neither Zip nor Jaz is yet available. I was told that they receive lots of requests for Zip, but they can't offer it yet because of some kind of licensing problem. Apparently, Gateway has to license Gateway Europe to sell each product. That has been completed for Ditto, but not for Zip nor Jaz. I took this to mean that it is a lengthy bureaucratic process meaning that we may not see Zip/Jaz sales in Europe thru Gateway for some time.....definitely not for Xmas.
Although the conversation was interesting, I didn't come away with a good feeling towards any improvement of European sales in general....Gateway is just one player, and they have been definitely slow here stateside, but I hope this isn't indicative of problems of getting IOMG products into other supply channels.....Anyway, I'm not generally impressed about prospects of any improvement for IOMG sales in Europe for Xmas.....:(
Ed Johnson 4+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:Compaq Zip? Date: 96-11-04 15:08:31 EST From: PaulL73
Here's what CNF president says: << According to Paul Charles, CNF president, "It is the ideal storage solution for today's multimedia intensive environment. The floppy is just not adequate. Zip drives are changing the way we store, and move, our stuff. It will have a major impact on both desktop and mobile computer users.">>
It's not clear yet whether Compaq is active in this deal or passive, as in, why not make the notebooks Zip compatible? It can't hurt.
There's no way to see this as anything but a positive. I can't wait for the short spinmeisters to serve up their pretzel logic on this one.
The question is how big a positive. Put together with the BIOS breakthrough of a few months ago plus the Dream Team deal this new announcement adds up to yet more evidence that Iomega/Zip is becoming a substantial presence in the *thinking* of the major players in the computer world. 5+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Gateway is official Date: 96-11-04 19:15:28 EST From: PKeeler
Gateway's Web page now lists (internal?) SCSI Jaz and external (PP?) Zip drives. Goto http://www.gw2k.com and hit the computer picture. Select a computer (P5-200 worked) and hit "Build Your Own". Scroll down and you will see a configuration option listed "Iomega Drives." Bad news is you can only get one per system.
PKeeler Patrick Keeler
P.S. How come no press release? Waiting for ink to dry on the internal Zip deal with Panasonic? 6+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:News! Date: 96-11-04 21:06:49 EST From: Arentz65
<<<Subj: Re:Compaq Zip? Date: 96-11-04 15:15:16 EST From: Huibs pht
>> If this is so hot, why doesn't the stock move ?
Anna <<
..well, could be that the news is slow to permeate..
..or, as it seems to me, it's not an 'official' notice of a Compaq OEM, but a peripheral supplier of Compaq, adding a 'new' item..
..but, I'm SURE CPQ has silently endorsed the efforts of CNF..
..my questions..
..1) who is CNF??.. ..2) are they making the drive??.. ..3) is CPQ's "MultiBay" similar, or compatible with other "Bays"??..>>> **********
1. was answered already. 2. They are taking the notebook zip and configuring it In the same way as VST is doing for PowerBooks. 3. Don't know if Compaqs bays are the same as everyone else but the removable drive bay is becoming more widespread In todays notebooks.
As for CPQ having silently endorsed the efforts of CNF. There would be no need for them to do so. CNF sells peripherals to notebook users. They have the specs to the CPQ notebooks In order to make their other add on drives. So they need no ones permission or 'endorsement' In order to sell their products.
This is the same sort of deal as the VST one. A peripheral supplier is going to sell a hot item to notebook users. CNF has no connection to Compaq and this deal tells us nothing on when or whether CPQ will offer Zip.
Eric EArentz = Arentz65 7+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: HUGE NEWS!!!! Date: 96-11-04 21:57:03 EST From: Cynicalguy
I just got some more info as to what the new products that I mentioned Iomega would introduce at comdex. (I think that is some sort of run on.)
Remember when I posted that Iomega would have something big and new to introduce at Comdex? Then KE confirmed that with his quote in the conference call.
Well I have some more details now about the new products. Yes, more than one!!!!!!!
Product 1 is called DVT - Digital Video Tape. It may be able to store data as well as video. More info to follow. That is the big secret product. DVT not DVD.
Product 2 is a Mini Zip-Specifically designed to adapt to a camera. Mini Zip disks will be a 2 inch by 2 inch disk that attaches to a camera. The user will take a picture onto the mini Zip disk. He/She will then slip the disk into adaptor that fits in a regular Zip and view the pictures on the computer. Thus keeping regular Zip standard.
This is huge folks. Really. Time to party. And when in Vegas-bet on blue.
GO IO!!!!!!!!! Cynicalguy Bill Bronsteen the plan coming together the NEW beginning of the beginning 8+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:News! Date: 96-11-04 22:10:06 EST From: PKeeler
EArentz (in his latest incarnation) wrote: >>> This is the same sort of deal as the VST one. A peripheral supplier is going to sell a hot item to notebook users. CNF has no connection to Compaq and this deal tells us nothing on when or whether CPQ will offer Zip. <<<
I agree. agree. Possible disagree. agree.
I got the impression that most of CNF's business is related to Compaq computers and selling stuff to their customers. If that's the case (I've never heard of them before), then I would think that CNF would try to go with a Compaq product if possible. Either it isn't true (CNF can survive not selling to Compaq customers) or it isn't possible or practical for them to offer an LS-120.
PKeeler Patrick Keeler 9+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:HUGE NEWS!!!! Date: 96-11-04 22:23:31 EST From: MF Ben
<<<Well I have some more details now about the new products. Yes, more than one!!!!!!!
Product 1 is called DVT - Digital Video Tape. It may be able to store data as well as video. More info to follow. That is the big secret product. DVT not DVD.>>>
I don't get it. What do you think Ditto is? Analog? Audio and video tape are pretty much the last remnants of analog around. DAT as well as a few video formats (including Sony's new format) are digital. FYI: Ditto can store data and video now.
Remember, video is nothing more than data (either analog or digital) hence being able to store "data as well as video" makes little sense. Digital video IS binary data and ANY computer storage device can store it, maybe not much of it, but can store it (a floppy can store digital video).
A few observations: tape is non-linear and therefore is NOT a random access medium. Translation: it sucks for speed and is not an online storage medium due to the extremely slow access times. As well, tape will not be the storage medium of the future, IN ANY FORMAT. I don't see why, based on the medium itself, Iomega would concentrate any more R&D on tape. Makes no sense but I'll judge the product when I see an OFFICIAL release.
<<<Product 2 is a Mini Zip-Specifically designed to adapt to a camera. Mini Zip disks will be a 2 inch by 2 inch disk that attaches to a camera. The user will take a picture onto the mini Zip disk. He/She will then slip the disk into adaptor that fits in a regular Zip and view the pictures on the computer. Thus keeping regular Zip standard.>>>
Two observations here: first, this is not "bigger than Zip and Jaz" as posted earlier. Actually, I'm underwhelmed. The mini-Zip is a great niche product, will most probably find a nice margin business and will contribute pennies to the IOM bottom line. Read "niche" again. Second, I can't help but think of VHS-C and 8mm. Even with the "big brother" compatibility edge that VHS-C had over 8mm (and still has), 8mm has the dominant market share. Just a quick thought
<<<This is huge folks. Really. Time to party. And when in Vegas-bet on blue.>>>
Huge how? Bigger than Zip or Jaz? I don't see how tape can EVER be considered bigger than either of those two product lines and I really can't see how a niche product will contribute more than a few pennies going forward. Obviously we shall see.
One last observation: I wonder how Iomega feels about having someone (a someone who has posted that he has been trusted as a beta tester for certain of the company's products) post about their possible upcoming announcements without proper authorization.
I tend to believe that companies announce products at certain times and in certain ways for a reason. Perhaps Hill would agree. I called for Zip/Jaz unit numbers, a sales and revenue issue, but I would never demand a company pre-release R&D or impending products.
Cheers,
Benjamin 10++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:HUGE NEWS!!!! Date: 96-11-04 22:55:17 EST From: PKeeler
MF Ben wrote: >>> Two observations here: first, this is not "bigger than Zip and Jaz" as posted earlier. Actually, I'm underwhelmed. The mini-Zip is a great niche product, will most probably find a nice margin business and will contribute pennies to the IOM bottom line. Read "niche" again. Second, I can't help but think of VHS-C and 8mm. Even with the "big brother" compatibility edge that VHS-C had over 8mm (and still has), 8mm has the dominant market share. Just a quick thought <<<
Ben is the expert on things digital.
I would like to throw this in: The recent Disktrend report had this forecast on flashcards:
Forecast Worldwide unit shipments in thousands Shipments 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 --------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Flash cards 859.1 1,566.0 3,311.3 6,841.9 10,739.5
This predicts 61% annualized growth into the next millennium in this niche. Disktrend saw most of the growth here related to digital photography. If I read the vaporware correctly, this is the market the mini-zip would try to fill. Good luck to them. I hate to talk about Iomega's vaporware just as much as Syquest's or Swan's, but the mini-Zip might have a definite competitive advantage over flash cards. The VHS-C and 8mm analogy is one to keep around though.
>>> One last observation: I wonder how Iomega feels about having someone (a someone who has posted that he has been trusted as a beta tester for certain of the company's products) post about their possible upcoming announcements without proper authorization. <<<
By implying that Cynicalguy has some kind of inside information you give more weight to the news than is warranted at this early time. We don't know if C-Guy has beta tested this product. This could all just be rumors floating around C-Guy's local coffee shop. If it turns out to be true we should have a conversation about whether C-Guy has 'harmed' Iomega. Until then its really fruitless.
PKeeler Patrick Keeler 11++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:HUGE NEWS!!!! Date: 96-11-04 23:11:20 EST From: MF Ben
<<<If I read the vaporware correctly, this is the market the mini-zip would try to fill. Good luck to them. I hate to talk about Iomega's vaporware just as much as Syquest's or Swan's, but the mini-Zip might have a definite competitive advantage over flash cards. The VHS-C and 8mm analogy is one to keep around though.>>>
PKeeler,
I'm curious where you see an advantage over flash ROM. I see a price advantage for a floppy based product but I see the flash RAM (not ROM) kicking butt on speed (both thru and access). Speed may play a part as users "capture" a few seconds of a scene and save the best frame. I, personally, see low end digital photography eventually getting gobbled up into digital video as consumers literally print or save favorite frames. Sorry about the VHS-C/8MM analogy but I HATE piggyback compatibility and consumers have voted that way as well. Makes me scared. We'll see. ;)
<<<By implying that Cynicalguy has some kind of inside information you give more weight to the news than is warranted at this early time. We don't know if C-Guy has beta tested this product. This could all just be rumors floating around C-Guy's local coffee shop. If it turns out to be true we should have a conversation about whether C-Guy has 'harmed' Iomega.>>>
As a shareholder I am concerned for two reasons:
1) the company should decide when and what new product information to release 2) any leak within the company hurts its credibility as management is not "managing" effectively enough to keep employees from yacking confidential information.
Either Bill has inside information or he does not. Either way, whether it is Bill receiving some insider information or Bill passing along third-hand information, Iomega, if this information is proven accurate, HAS A LEAK.
Cheers,
Benjamin 12++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subj: Re:HUGE NEWS!!!! Date: 96-11-04 23:35:49 EST From: MF DrJimbo
Ben-
I see great potential for magnetic disk technology for digital photography. A big problem is that the imaging technology is outrunning the storage technology for low end cameras. On the imaging side, the cameras on a chip have higher resolution but 32 bit color takes up tons of memory. Flash cards are just to small to hold many images. And they are expensive, so a photographer has to carry around a few to collect a images. The equivalent of a few roles of 35mm film gets to be very expensive. Not suitable for the low end. On the other hand, mini Zip disks at say $5 for 25 MB is going to much more affordable than a few $350 8MB flash memory cards.
Now this sounds like science fiction to me, but it rings true to Iomega's mode of operation so far. They find a removable storage need and fill it now at a price that consumers can afford. They haven't produced products at price points way above the market, expecting prices to come down with volume (as the optical drive market did).
So too with the Digital Video Tape rumor. We all know DVD is the hope of the Consumer Electronics Industry. And if its ever writable consumers might actually buy it. But since you have DVD about to appear and no way to make digital video copies off those disks, why not a nice little Iomega DVT to go with your DVD. Don't want to copy DVD onto that nasty analog VCR, right? You want to keep those 5.1 channel soundtracks discrete and in the digital domain right? Again it would be just like Iomega to leverage the cheap technology of computer tape backup into digital video tape.
So while this may be nothing but rumor, I find the possibilities quite interesting. If they are true, I think I'll be a happy sharee to report them to individual investors. You think they're going to be reported by Reuters? Now I'd strongly object to Bill directly taking information from Iomega. But repeating information that others may have to us is only fair in the marketplace of ideas.
End Report. Posts covered through 3 a.m. 11/5/96. _______________________________
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