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No requiem for the floppy yet

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DQW Bureau
New Update

In this age of fast-changing technology where leading storage guys are talking of optical products and network storage, floppies seem a far cry. The reality however is floppies are still around and are likely to be so for a while yet. Sure, it won't go on forever but experts opine that the pervasive nature of the product will ensure its survival for some more time.

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Said Rajiv K Bapna, Director, Amkette, "Floppies have survived because they have fulfilled the three parameters of a successful storage product: affordability, pervasiveness, and interoperability." It is an easily available technology and most vendors have been working on it. As a result, the cost of the technology has come down and the volume of sales has increased. This has resulted in the pervasiveness of the technology, which has a spiral down effect on prices.

As against this, some niche storage technologies like the Iomega's zip drives could not sustain the pressures in the market as the technology was kept proprietary. Therefore vendors could not work on the technology and prices also could not come down to take the product to the mass level.

Unless a technology is cheap, it will not be able to reach the critical mass, which is so important to push down prices. And without the mass penetration there can be no pervasiveness. Interchangeability and inter-operability is also important for technology to sustain. For instance, a couple of years ago a 20 MB floppy called floptical was launched which were floppies with an optical groove on it. But it was not operable on all platforms. Therefore due to restricted usage, the product could not take off. Another such feeble attempt was the launch of a 120 MB super disk from Imation which could not take off because it remained a niche technology.

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The future of storage products is said to be in optical products like CD-R and CD-RW. Information is stored on the CD-R by burning digital information on the surface of a blank CD. Once burnt, the CD can only be read and not written again. This is a disadvantage that may take its toll on the CD-R but the CD-RW can be rewritten many times and can be read in a standard CD-ROM drive. The technology used in CD-RW is to store information by passing light through the CD. The CD-RW is expected to replicate the positive spiral that contributed to the floppy's success. The technology is stable, and with more and more manufacturers shipping out similar products, the costs are also coming down. 

The issue of interchangeability will be addressed when standardization is arrived at. Another positive aspect of the CD-RW as a storage device is that the product has a clear migration path to upgradability. The technology can be upgraded to DVDs, which has phenomenal storage capacity. As against the CD-RW capacity of 650 MB to 700 MB, DVDs have capacity upto 16 GB starting from 4.7 GB.

However, CD-RW is not mainstream a product since it is still an expensive technology. Although the prices are falling fast from $ 200 two years ago, the CD-RW today costs $ 125 and is expected to go down to $ 75 by next year. According to experts, once the price of CD-RW reaches the $ 60 mark, it will become a mainstream product. And till then, experts opine, the floppy will rule the roost.

(CNS)

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