Iomega today announced a $100 price
cut on its Jaz 2GB drives, the second discount for the product this summer.
The drives are used primarily by high-end graphics, desktop publishing, and
multimedia users to store and share image and sound files, a niche market
that Iomega currently dominates, according to analysts. The Jaz 2GB can
read and write to both 1GB and 2GB discs, and is around 40 percent faster at
reading the 1GB discs, Iomega said.
The price cuts mark the second round of discounts on the drives this
summer. In June, Iomega brought the Jaz 2GB products down to $499 from $639
for the external version and $549 for the internal one. Today, the prices
dropped to $399, for both versions, which work on both PCs and Macs.
This second round of price cuts is a strategic move, said Greg Goelz, vice
president of professional products division for Iomega. Earlier this
summer, analysts speculated that by discounting the Jaz drive, Iomega was
trying to shift demand to its higher-end, and higher profit Jaz line, and
away from its lower-end and more mainstream Zip drive.
"The reason why [we cut prices] is boiled down to the relationship
between demand and price," Goelz said today. "The lower the price, the more
attractive the products become, and we want to continue to offer
value-based products."