A Standards War to Replace the 1.44
  1. Introduction
    1. Uses of High Density Removable Storage in General
      1. File Sharing
      2. File Transfer & Portability
      3. Backup
      4. Security
      5. Multi-media applications
        1. Video downloads and playbacks
        2. Audio (e.g. music) downloads and playbacks
        3. Flashy mobile multimedia presentations
        4. Games
      6. Photography and Digital photo albums
      7. Multiple OS environments
      8. Entire environment sharing
      9. Desktop Publishing/Graphics
        1. High speed scanning of high resolution graphics images

    2. 1.44 MB disks served these purposes in 80’s, but now outdated by growing file sizes, large Internet downloads and multi-media applications

    3. Why a standards war exists, why no cooperation on a standard

     

  2. Market Analysis
    1. Discussion of potential customers (including OEMs) and their changing preferences/demands with respect to mobile storage devices

    2. General discussion of how and why we segmented the market as we did

    3. Definition of Four Segments based on Capacity and Primary Usage
      1. Low End 100MB – 200MB
        1. Primary purpose: file sharing and transfer
        2. Same uses as 1.44 MB disks had in past
        3. Customer set

      2. Mid Range Capacities: 200MB to 250MB
        1. File Sharing and Transfer
        2. Multimedia
        3. Backup
        4. Less in common with 1.44MB market of the past
        5. Customer set

      3. High End Capacities: 1GB to 2 GB
        1. Backup
        2. Portable Desktop Environments
        3. Probably Not a Replacement for 1.44 MB disks, though some overlap in their usage.
        4. Alternative to fixed Hard Drive
        5. Customer set

      4. Very High End Capacities: > 4GB
        1. Alternative to fixed Hard Drive
        2. Security
          1. Can put hard drive in a safe as is done for highly classified work
        3. Entirely Different Role than traditional Floppy Disks, thus we will not discuss much.
        4. Customer set

     

  3. Industry/Market Analysis
    4.
    1. General discussion of major players in the market (Iomega, Imation, Sony, SyQuest, etc)

    2. Trends in the Industry (consolidation, particularly)
      3.

    3. Industry Segmentation based on Capacity and Use Served (also explain why we combined Low and Middle here)
      1. Low /Middle End Capacity Segment:
        2.
        1. Iomega Zip 100 and Zip 250
          2.
          1. Technology/ Lack of Backwards Compatibility
          2. Cost
          3. Performance – Insufficient for Video
          4. Time of Market Introduction

        2. Imation LS 120
          1. Technology/ Backwards Compatibility
          2. Cost
          3. Performance – Sufficient for Video Clips?
          4. Time of Market Introduction

        3. Sony HiFD
          1. Technology/ Backwards Compatibility
          2. Cost
          3. Performance – Sufficient for Video Clips
          4. Time of Market Introduction

        4. Other Players
          1. SyQuest – just bought by Iomega
          2. Caleb, Swan, Avatar Peripherals (External), Avatar Systems Corp. (Internal) – all very small players

        5. Present Market Performance for each of the above players
          1. Relative Sales
          2. # of Units in the Field
          3. OEM Partnerships
          4. Technology Licensing
          5. Not yet certain who "winner" will be.

      2. High End Capacity Segment
        1. Iomega Jazz
          2.
          1. Technology/ Backwards Compatibility
          2. Cost
          3. Performance
          4. Time of Market Introduction

        2. Summatec MobileDrive
          1. Technology/ Backwards Compatibility
          2. Cost
          3. Performance
          4. Time of Market Introduction

        3. SyQuest SparQ/ SyJet
          1. Technology/ Backwards Compatibility
          2. Cost
          3. Performance
          4. Time of Market Introduction
          5. Recent Acquisition by Iomega

        4. Present Market Performance for each of the above players
          1. Relative Sales
          2. # of Units in the Field
          3. OEM Partnerships
          4. Technology Licensing

     

  4. Economics of the Standards War:
    1. Basic Forces
      1. Network Effects
      2. Lock-In

    2. Resulting Strategies
      1. Time to Market (First mover advantage)
      2. Backward Compatibility to exploit network of users of previous product.
      3. Backward Incompatibility: leverage network effects from large installed base of new technology to get everybody to switch over. (Iomega)
      4. Penetration Pricing (We plan on making an Appendix containing graphs showing plummeting prices and rising units shipped)
      5. Managing Expectations
      6. Bundling with complimentary products
        1. OEM's offering drives in their boxes
        2. Memory eating software/multi-media applications
      7. Exploiting Lock-in Effects (Gillette razor model)
      8. Licensing: Give Away, or Defend your Technology?
      9. Partnering with Competitors to establish standards
        1. Example: Sony and Fuji for HiFD standard
      10. Acquiring Competitors
        1. Example: Iomega acquires Syquest
      11. Other Ideas

     

  5. Predictions and Analysis
    1. Low/middle end market economic analysis
      1. Iomega
        2.
        1. First mover advantage
        2. Network Effects from large number of units already sold
        3. Sales Advantage from OEM partnerships
        4. Perception that Iomega is winning (strong brand)
        5. Weaknesses (lack of backward compatibility?)
        6. Other Factors

      2. Sony and Imation
        1. Backward compatibility with 1.44 MB drives exploits network effects with huge existing base of 1.44 drives.
        2. Partnerships with other drive manufacturers
        3. OEM partnerships (Imation) (weakness for Sony)
        4. Performance advantage in multimedia applications over Iomega
        5. Other Concerns

    2. High end market economic analysis
      1. Relative advantages of different players

      2. Different dynamics in this Market
        1. Network effects not as important since file sharing is not as important here as in low end segment.

      3. Cross over effects
        1. Will high end drives draw market share from low end of market?

    3. Likely scenarios in the Low/Mid Capacity market sectors

    4. Likely scenarios in the High end of the market

     

  6. Conclusions
    7.

     

  7. Appendix: Comparison Table of Specifications for Each Removable Disk
    8.

    1. Summary Table of the Three Segments For High Density Removable Disks:
      2.

      http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is224/s99/GroupE/project_1/appendix_I.html

       

    2. Specification Table by Vendor of the Low End and Mid Range Removable Storage Disks (First and Second Segments):
      3.

      http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is224/s99/GroupE/project_1/appendix_II.html

       

    3. Specification Table by Vendor of the High End Removable Storage Disks (Third Segment) :
      4.

      http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is224/s99/GroupE/project_1/appendix_III.html

     

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