by Sindy Atoms
by Sindy Atoms
The industry is certainly starting to get serious about CD-R products.
About a month or so ago Sony unveiled its second generation product the Spressa
CD-R 940 drives and others have followed their lead.
Plasmon,
formerly know for its high end products has started showing its Afterburner, a
$699 CD-R solution. However, since the company's current line is carried by
VARs, Plasmon is seeking resellers and retailers for this product. Others
hitting that market was Pinnacle Micro Inc. with its $799 Explorer and Smart and
Friendly's CD-R 1002/Pro which has a $600 price tag. At the high end of the
market is TEAC America with its CD-R50S recordable drive which is priced under
$1,000. Want to bet with the other players low balling TEAC we will now see some
rather rapid pricing action on TEAC's part?
Market research firm Dataquest is predicting CD-R systems under $500 by year end and resellers are reporting shortages for the media as demand increases.
Looks like a consensus. The SSFDC or Solid State Floppy Disk Card forum has agreed on a standard for SSFDC. Among those inking the pact was Samsung, Cirrus Logic, Toshiba and AMP Inc. among others.
In the wheeler dealer category Seagate was at it again. The company pledged $84 million for UK-based Holistic Systems Ltd., a leader in the Enterprise Business Intelligence systems market. Doesn't that market name sound like an oxymoron, much like military intelligence? Oh well maybe its just me.
Seagate then turned around and sold Seagate Storage Systems to nStor (stet) Corp. for an undisclosed sum. Before you think they have lost their minds having sold the store, this group was formerly called Conner Storage Systems Group. Didn't they just buy them last year?
Since last month we gave so much ink, or its electronic equivalent to Zip drives et al, this month we are happy to report that another industry powerhouse has adopted the PD drive. Keep a sharp eye out for all of those Panasonic CF-62 multimedia notebooks coming to a store near you!
Another new product hitting the market is from Maxell Corp. of America, which said it would be making LS-120 floppy disks.
All was not rosy for everybody in the mass storage market last month. Hewlett-Packard Co. announced its intention to leave many segments of the market due to a $100 million operating loss in the first half of this fiscal year. The company plans to remain in the tape drive and CD market however.
Quantum Corp. was another storm cloud, telling industry analysts that its earnings will be less than expected due to slower introduction of new products by OEMs and a general slow down of the industry.
Not everybody sees dark clouds over the industry. Micropolis Inc. has opened a 400,000 square foot facility in Singapore to manufacture hard disk drives. The site is to help the company meet the growing demand for mass storage according to company execs. Wonder what they know that HP does not?
Even Quantum has forged ahead with larger capacity drives including a 1.2G-byte per disk version of its Fireball series.
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