Roy, Utah-based Iomega Corp attributes the runaway success of its 100Mb Zip exchangeable cartridge drive among home computer users to packaging and the user-friendly back-up software, as much as to the low cost – it goes for $200 or less. And hoping to repeat that success, it has repackaged its new 800Mb Travan tape drive (CI No 2,682), giving it a Zip-like casing, this time brown, and has bundled back-up software said to be equally user friendly, calling it the Ditto Easy 800. The price has also come down, to less than ú150 in the UK, from ú230 for the original parallel port version launched in the summer. It supports quarter inch tape formats other than the Travan, such as QIC-Wide and standard QIC. There is also an internal model available and these new models replace the Ditto 800. The company, which has recently had to organise a $60m line of credit and arrange Seiko Epson Co as contract manufacturer to help it met demand for its products, aims to have a product in every section of the removable storage market before long. The Ditto Easy 800 back-up drive will start shipping next month.
