Media please contact:
Chris Romoser, Iomega Corporation, (801) 332-3678 romoser@iomega.com
Julie Miller, Intuit Inc. (858) 784-4469; julie_miller@intuit.com
Analyst/Investors, please contact:
Jim Recob, Iomega Corporation, (801) 332-4430 recob@iomega.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ROY, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July
12, 2000-- Iomega's Clik!(TM)
Portable Storage Platform Signals Competitive Advantage
in Anticipated $500 Million-plus Market Iomega Corporation
(NYSE:IOM), a global leader in data management solutions,
announced today that it is uniquely positioned to take
advantage of the explosive growth expected in the personal
digital audio player market over the next few years.
With an Iomega-branded digital audio player in retail
stores this fall and several additional manufacturers
producing MP3 players with Iomega's built-in Clik!(TM)
drive, Iomega expects to be a dominant force in the
digital audio player market. Sales of personal digital
audio players are expected to increase dramatically
over the next few years. Cahners In-Stat Group, a technology
marketing research firm, estimates that unit shipments
will increase from 2.8 million this year to more than
10.7 million in 2004. The most dynamic unit growth will
occur in 2001 when more than 6.3 million units are expected
to ship, according to Cahners. Total annual revenue
for portable digital music devices is anticipated to
be approximately $378 million in 2000 and $599 million
in 2001, according to Cahners. Iomega will begin shipping
its first digital audio player in the fourth quarter
of this year. The Company also expects manufacturers
incorporating Clik!(TM) drives built into their portable
digital audio players to begin shipping those products
during the remainder of 2000, with the first one expected
to be available to consumers later this month. Iomega
believes that the combined shipping of these different
digital audio players will result in more than 900,000
Clik!-enabled digital audio players in the marketplace
in 2001. "Iomega's digital audio player and other
players that incorporate Clik! drives will immediately
become consumer favorites in this expanding market,"
said Bruce Albertson, president and CEO, Iomega Corporation.
"Clik! drives and disks reduce the cost of storing
music on digital audio players by about 90 percent compared
to the cost of storing music on today's digital audio
players. With its inexpensive, unlimited storage potential,
Clik! drives and disks provide the portable solution
that digital music enthusiasts have been waiting for."
The Clik!(TM) Disk Advantage: $10 Versus $100 Iomega's
digital audio player and other MP3 players with Clik!(TM)
built-in will give consumers the ability to create CD
quality music at about $10 (U.S.) for each Clik! 40MB
disk (when purchased in a 10-pack), versus approximately
$100 to create music on each 32MB solid state memory
card, which is the industry's only removable storage
alternative today. "Clik! disks could become the
digital record albums of the future," said Noel
Sobelman, senior manager digital audio products, Iomega
Corporation. "Imagine spending 75 cents to store
a three-minute song on a 40MB Clik! disk versus more
than $9 to store that same song on a solid state memory
card. And once that 32MB solid state card is filled
with about a half-hour of music, the consumer is stuck
with those musical selections, or they can erase the
music and start over. The only other option is to buy
another $100 solid state card. With the Clik! drive,
you pop in another $10 disk and off you go with another
album of music. That's a big difference in convenience
and cost, and consumers will recognize that value immediately."
A national survey by Iomega showed that future owners
of digital audio players with built-in Clik!(TM) drives
will, on average, purchase more than 10 Clik! disks
per year. The affordable Clik! disks will allow consumers
to create inexpensive digital music collections. "Portable
digital audio players with built-in Clik! drives will
give consumers the advantage of saving the music they
want at a price they want," said Sobelman. The
First Clik!(TM)-Enabled Digital Audio Player The first
portable digital audio player with a built-in Clik!(TM)
drive is the Sensory Science RaveMP 2300, expected to
arrive at retail stores later this month. Several additional
digital audio players with Clik! drives built-in are
expected to begin shipping both domestically and internationally
later this year from manufacturers including LG International
Corp., Rexon Technologies, Addonics, Varo Vision, RFC
and Frontier Labs. Iomega is also working aggressively
with other manufacturers to bring additional Clik!-enabled
portable digital audio players to market. Iomega's own
portable digital audio player will feature the Dadio(TM)
operating system by Interactive Objects Inc. (OTC BB:OBJX),
a recognized leader in digital audio software. The Dadio
operating system enables the Iomega player to store
and interchangeably play back music encoded in various
formats. The Dadio operating system also supports both
free and secure copyright-protected music, giving consumers
the broadest selection of downloadable music in the
industry. Iomega's digital audio player will also offer
the "next generation" features most often
requested by digital audio enthusiasts, including a
programmable equalizer, drag and drop file transfer
capability, fast USB connectivity and an easy-to-use
menu display. Iomega's digital audio player also has
been designed to meet the portability and reliability
requirements of the active, on-the-go user. "Our
digital audio player will be a hit because the affordability
of Clik! technology allows consumers to create virtually
unlimited digital music collections on small, inexpensive
$10 disks," Sobelman said. "At the same time,
the Iomega digital audio player will be skip-free, have
a long battery life and sport the same sort of cool
design that people have come to expect in Iomega products."
About Iomega Iomega Corporation (NYSE:IOM) manufactures
and markets the award-winning Zip(R), Jaz(R) and Clik!(TM)
drives and disks and markets the ZipCD(TM) CD-RW drives
and discs. Iomega's products help people to save, share,
manage and create important information such as spreadsheets,
slides, Internet downloads, audio files and personal
photographs, while protecting that content from viruses
and hackers. Used in homes, businesses, government and
educational facilities and by creative professionals
everywhere, Iomega storage solutions are the enabling
technologies preferred by millions. The Company can
be reached at 1-800-MY-STUFF (800-697-8833), or on the
Web at http://www.iomega.com. Special Note: Statements
contained in this release relating to the expected availability
and functionality of Iomega's branded digital audio
player and other manufacturers' digital audio players
are forward-looking statements. There are a number of
important factors that could cause actual events to
differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking
statements, including market acceptance of, and demand
for, Iomega's branded digital audio player product and
other manufacturers' digital audio player products,
manufacturing issues, including component availability
and pricing encountered by Iomega and other manufacturers,
development and distribution issues of these products,
product pricing and conformity to specifications, competition,
intellectual property rights and other risks as identified
in Iomega's Annual Report to Stockholders for 1999 on
Form 10-K, and its most recent quarterly reports filed
with the SEC. Copyright(c)2000 Iomega Corporation. Iomega,
Zip, Jaz, Clik! and ZipCD are either registered trademarks
or trademarks of Iomega Corporation in the United States
and/or other countries. Certain other product names,
brand names and company names may be trademarks or designations
of their respective owners.
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