Iomega Ships 250 Megabyte Zip Drives, Intros 40mb Mobile Drive Line

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Dec 21, 1998

New Higher-Capacity Zip Drives Are

Compatible With Popular 100MB Disks

Iomega Corp. last week began US shipments of its new line of 250 megabyte Zip drives and disks, extending its widely popular Zip product line. With two and one-half times the capacity of the original Zip 100MB drive, the Zip 250 drives also read and write to Zip 100MB disks, ensuring that the millions of 100MB Zip disk owners can upgrade to the beefier drives without worrying about what to do with their already archived data files.

The Zip 250 drive package includes one Zip 250MB disk, and a CD loaded with IomegaWare and Norton Zip Rescue. RecordIt software is also included for recording and playing back voice and/or music on computers from the Zip disk or hard drive.

"Iomega's Zip 250 drive is an exciting addition to our current line of Zip solutions because of what it offers our customers -- higher capacity, faster performance and compatibility with more than 125 million Zip disks already shipped," says Edward Briscoe, president of Iomega's Personal Storage Division. "With the introduction of the Zip 250 drive, Iomega is responding to customer needs by continuing to provide them with portable and easy-to-use storage solutions."

The new Zip 250MB drive is available for an estimated street price of $199. Iomega is initially offering Zip 250MB disks for $19.95 and plans to offer them as low as $16.65 when purchased in a 6-pack.

Iomega also announced limited US shipments of its Clik! Mobile Drives and 40MB Clik! disks last week. The first Clik! drive configuration to be available is designed for digital cameras.

Iomega developed the Clik! line as a storage solution for portable digital products like cameras, handheld personal computers (HPCs) and notebooks. The Clik! Drive for Digital Cameras ships with the Clik! Flash Memory Reader, a Clik! 40MB disk, an integrated battery, and a parallel port desktop docking station. The flash memory reader enables users to copy photographs from the flash memory in their digital cameras to the Clik! disks. This allows them to download their photos while they're away from their desks when their cameras' memories are full, making the Clik! disks the digital equivalent of a roll of film.

The Clik! Mobile Drives will eventually be available in three configurations. In addition to the digital photo bundle now shipping, other Clik! bundles are expected to ship by the end of the month or early January, including a model for mobile PCs which comes with the drive, one disk, rechargeable battery, a parallel port desktop docking station and a PC card adapter for use with notebooks and Windows CE products. A third bundle includes a drive and PC Card adapter, flash memory reader, battery, parallel port desktop docking station and one 40MB disk.

The handheld drive weighs less than seven ounces and offers users connectivity to most mobile digital products and desktop computers, and the ability to easily share information between them. Clik! 40MB disks are 2" by 2", about half the size of a credit card.

"Iomega has identified an area that has strong growth potential," says Bob Amatruda, senior analyst for tape and removable storage at IDC. "Clik! Mobile Drives and disks will allow Iomega to address the needs of the burgeoning digital camera, handheld PC and sub-notebook computer markets in a manner never before achieved by small form factor removable media drives."

The Clik! Mobile Drive bundle for digital photography is priced at $249. Disks are expected to be available in 2-, 4- and 10-packs this week for as low as $9.99 each when purchased in a 10-pack.