OR's 120Mb floppy to hook more notebook makers

NEC said yesterday it plans to use OR's 120Mb slimline a:drive in new Versa notebooks to be released this summer. "If we have four out of the top 10 notebook makers signed up by the end of the year I'll be absolutely delighted," said Mike Dalton, director of marketing in Europe for the company. Compaq and Acer as well as NEC showed notebooks with 120Mb floppy drives at the spring CeBit show.

Dalton expects that the LS-120 will eventually overtake sales of Iomega's Zip drive. "I'll be very disappointed if it takes us three years to sell six million units and I honestly don't believe it will," he said.

Early next year, OR expects to deliver an IEEE.1394 'FireWire' interface option for the a:drive, making it plausible as an option for storing digital video from cameras. Also, in the same time frame, Dalton said he expects third-parties to offer combination CD-ROM/120Mb floppy drives for notebooks.