Iomega Corp, struggling to find its way again after setbacks in its core Zip and Jaz removable storage businesses, has announced its entry into optical storage with its first CD re-writeable drive, ZipCD. Aimed at corporations, PC enthusiasts and internet users, ZipCD offers 650Mb of data capacity for the back-up, archive, transport, sharing and creation of data onto CD format. The internal E-IDE 4x4x24 drive ships with bundled software, and is the first of a new line of optical products set to come out of Iomega. The drives are expected to begin shipping in the second half of the year, and will be priced competitively, Iomega said. It also intends to sell CD-RW and CD-R discs.
Last month, Iomega warned of 450 job cuts and a $45m charge for restructuring in its second quarter (CI No 3,686). Flat sales of its Jaz drives, along with production and reliability problems with Zip, have affected its performance over the last year. Iomega has set its main hopes for recovery on the success of its forthcoming Click! Removable drive for mobile systems, but that product has also suffered delays in its release.
Another new area is MP3 internet audio. Iomega has been involved with the efforts to add security to MP3 through the Secure Digital Music Initiative, and this week it launched a joint MP3 effort with online music store Rock.com and secure internet music company Liquid Audio Inc. The three claims to be offering the first secure and portable digital music download system compatible with SDMI at www.rock.com. Files can be downloaded and stored directly onto a Zip drive.
Iomega acquired the fixed assets and intellectual property from its bankrupt competitor Syquest Inc at the start of the year (CI No 3,575). This week it came to an agreement with Fremont, California-based Peripheral Computer Support Inc, enabling PCS to sell and support Iomega’s inventory of Syquest products. There are no plans to manufacture additional Syquest drives, though PCS says users should find there are enough cartridges to meet demand in the foreseeable future. What’s left of Syquest remains responsible for hardware bought prior to the Iomega acquisition.
