Iomega making 1 Gig IBM Microdrive...
Ten O'Clock Tech: Iomega Goes Micro
By Arik Hesseldahl
In simpler days, if you purchased a storage product from Iomega , it was safe to assume the unit was
manufactured by Iomega. But, in this industry especially, times change--quickly.
The company that brought you the Zip disk and the Jaz cartridge now sells a whole line of data storage
products, some it cooked up in-house, but others are licensed from other companies. The latest to join the
Iomega family is a 1-gigabyte version of the IBM -made Microdrive.
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It comes with a PC-card adapter, making it ideal for laptop computers, and is compatible with laptops from
most major manufacturers, including Apple Computer . But it also fits into nearly any CompactFlash Type II slot
on devices like digital cameras and audio players. Inside there's a tiny spinning hard drive that holds up to 1
gigabyte of data. That's a lot of music or pictures. But the drive itself weighs only 16 grams and measures less
than two inches wide by less than two inches long.
Iomega's been playing the percentages lately. Having beat out most of its original competitors in the removable
storage space contest, the company found it couldn't make enough money just selling Zip drives and hoping
that customers buy lots of the disks. So it's been diversifying into other areas where its storage technologies
can be useful. It now makes an MP3 audio player and another product that displays digital photos on a TV
screen.
But the company has also started selling nonproprietary storage products under its own brand, including CD-R
and CD-RW drives, and removable flash memory. Since there are so many choices available for storage
products, Iomega is playing it smart by dabbling its hand in many different areas to see which consumers
respond to with the most enthusiasm.
This is its second move with the IBM Microdrive technology. It first announced plans to sell a 340-megabyte
version of the Microdrive in November 2000.
And if a gigabyte in such a small a package doesn't impress you, then consider this: The first gigabyte-capacity
hard drive debuted in 1980. It was the size of a refrigerator, weighed more than 500 pounds and cost $40,000.
This one packs the same capacity into a package smaller than a matchbook for $500. How's that for progress?
