Iomega, which seems to have been forgotten by us for a while now, has recently announced a new ZIP-drive. The new product differs from the predecessors not only by its fast operation but also by a considerably higher supported capacity of the ZIP-disks. The new drive can work with old disks with 100 and 250MB capacity as well as with new ones reaching 750MB storage capacity.

New Iomega ZIP with 750MB disks support will be available in two versions: with USB 2.0 and with IEEE1394 interface. The company officially announced only USN 2.0 version, however, the Firmware version will not keep us waiting for long: it is going to be launched at Apple Expo next month. USB 2.0 ZIP drive costs $180, and 750MB disks will sell for $14.95 per piece or $12.49 if you are buying 8 pieces. IEEE1394 version of the drive will cost supposedly around $200.

As you know, the first Iomega ZIP drives for 100MB disks were announced in 1994. Then the storage capacity grew up to 250MB, but it was still too little to make ZIP-drives competitive to the rewritable CDs. As a result, Iomega managed to win only 2.5% of the storage market in 1999. Since then the market share of ZIP devices went down to 2.2%. Now Iomega hopes the introduction of the new drive will help them retain their positions in the market.