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New Iomega® REV™ 35GB/90GB Drive Now Shipping

Media please contact:
Chris Romoser, Iomega Corporation, (858) 314-7148 romoser@iomega.com

Analyst/Investors, please contact:
Barry Zwarenstein, Iomega Corporation, (858) 314-7190

For Immediate Release

Iomega Revolutionizes Backup With Hard-Drive Performance in a Removable Disk

SAN DIEGO, April 12, 2004 - Iomega Corporation (NYSE: IOM), a global leader in data storage, today began shipping the exciting new Iomega® REV™ 35GB/90GB* drive, bringing proven hard drive reliability and performance to the world of removable storage. As an alternative to tape and other backup and archiving solutions, Iomega’s new REV drive and 35GB removable REV disks deliver state-of-the-art server and desktop backup, while also providing businesses and home users with the ideal portable storage device for sharing and archiving large files.

“The new Iomega REV drive is a unique and versatile product that changes the rules of data backup, combining superior reliability and performance with breakthrough pricing,” said Werner Heid, president and CEO of Iomega Corporation. “Backing up to tape has always involved compromises because tape is a relatively fragile, slow and expensive linear-access technology. Iomega’s new REV drive makes backup and system or file recovery tasks faster, easier and less costly. Small business owners and IT managers will save immediately in terms of labor, hardware costs and system downtime.”

Revolutionary Performance
The Iomega REV drive offers the removeability of tape with the speed and ease of use of a hard drive. REV disks transfer data up to eight times faster than tape**, are smaller than a deck of playing cards (10 x 77 x 75 mm), and can be rewritten more than a million times (estimated). With a maximum sustained transfer rate of 25 MB/sec, and using drag and drop random access technology, REV users can copy and restore individual files in seconds.

Revolutionary Reliability
With patent-pending advanced two-stage error correction and patent-pending automatic head cleaning, Iomega REV technology achieves an error rate three orders of magnitude better than that of today’s sealed hard drives. The REV drive design keeps the sensitive read/write heads and electronics sealed in the REV drive, and for increased reliability, a patent-pending air filtration system creates a virtual clean room” environment inside the removable disk. Iomega REV disks are engineered to provide an extremely durable and reliable shelf life, estimated to exceed 30 years.

The Tape Replacement Opportunity
Easy to use and less than half the price of most competing tape products, Iomega’s REV drive outperforms more expensive tape alternatives like DDS-4, DAT-72, VXA®, AIT-1, and DLT VS80. Gartner estimates this market to be around 1 million units in 2004 (Gartner, 2003 Tape Drives Forecast Report, June 3, 2003).

The new REV drive also appeals to a broader market of individuals and businesses that have avoided tape backup products because they are slow, expensive, and difficult to use. The market for REV backup in small and medium-sized businesses is sizeable, with 7.9 million small businesses (under 100 employees) and 93,000 mid-size firms (100 to 999 employees) in the U.S. (IDC estimate). Medical, legal, financial and other such businesses faced with regulatory compliance requirements for data archiving, and the millions of home office households confronting a growing deluge of data, further extend the market for internal and external REV drives as an ideal backup, archiving, and portable storage solution.

“Iomega’s REV drive is a compelling alternative for customers who have traditionally used tape for backup and data protection on their entry level servers as well as high-end desktops,” said Robert Amatruda, research manager at IDC. “REV’s performance, easy-of-use and attractive price make it a good fit for small businesses that value high-capacity removable storage.”

The OEM Opportunity
Major PC OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are currently evaluating REV drives for use in server and business desktop systems, products that often ship without high-capacity backup due to the high cost of tape. Currently, both the external USB 2.0 version and the internal ATAPI version of the Iomega REV drive are available at the Web sites of major PC OEMs and other channel partners, as well as at www.iomega.com.

German manufacturer BDT GmbH & Co. K.G., a world leader in tape autoloader products, has already announced (November 2003) a letter of intent whereby BDT is exploring the possibility of developing autoloader products using Iomega REV technology. BDT currently supplies about 70 percent of the low-end autoloader market through its OEM relationships with leading computer companies, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Quantum and ADIC. Iomega and BDT envision a range of breakthrough autoloader products using REV technology, from full height 5.25-inch single drive products with 280GB of native storage capacity to multi-drive 4U configurations with over 4TB of native storage.

The Vertical Market Opportunity
The REV drive has the speed, capacity and reliability to transform large file tasks in any business. Vertical market computer users who will be delighted with these features and the virtually unlimited storage expandability of the REV drive include:

  • Video producers that archive professional video and graphics projects;
  • Engineers and consolutants that manage CAD/CAM and GIS data;
  • Graphic designers/software developers;
  • Companies and stores that manage surveillance video;
  • Government offices that want to lock away sensitive data on removable media with password protection;
  • Healthcare professionals that need to archive patient records and transfer large medical images; and
  • Students that need to maintain their own disk space in shared computing environments.

Revolutionary Software
Included with every Iomega REV drive is Iomega Automatic Backup Pro software, which provides frequent file-level backup to a REV drive. Once configured, the “no-touch” software automatically backs up specified files (including multiple revisions); keeps multiple backup sets on different destination drives; excludes user-selected files by file type, and performs scheduled backups. Powerful professional-level features include 2.6:1 compression and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) file encryption, along with support for Windows® server operating systems.

Symantec’s Norton Ghost™ for REV™ Drive software is also included for full-system disaster recovery, letting users capture an exact image of the computer’s main hard drive partition, including all data files, system files, settings and installed software. If disaster strikes, the disk image can be easily copied back to the replacement drive from the REV disk.

Iomega is also working with leading storage software vendors to certify compatibility between their solutions and the new Iomega REV drive. Compatibility will enable joint customers to have a wide variety of software solutions for essential storage requirements, such as data backup and business continuity.

The initial REV products herald a new generation of exciting backup technologies from Iomega. Later in 2004 Iomega expects to release Boot and Run™ software, which provides home and business users with prompt disaster recovery. If a primary hard drive fails, users can simply “Boot and Run” directly from an Iomega REV drive, giving them access to all the files, applications and functionality of their primary internal hard drive, until the failed drive can be replaced.

Compatibility and Requirements
Supported operating systems include Microsoft® Windows® XP Home and Professional; Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition; and Windows 2000 Server/Professional/Advanced Server (SP3 and SP4). Minimum hardware requirements include a 333 MHz Pentium II with a compatible USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 connection. (USB 2.0 is required to achieve maximum speeds.)

Pricing and Availability
The Iomega REV drive is now shipping in USB 2.0 external ($399.99 with one disk included) and ATAPI internal ($379.99 with one disk included) configurations. REV disks are available individually ($59.99) or in a four-pack ($199.95); all prices are U.S. suggested retail. Iomega REV autoloaders, which will support multiple disks per drive unit, are currently planned for introduction in the second half of 2004. FireWire®, SCSI and SATA models are also planned for introduction in the second half of this year.

About Iomega
Iomega Corporation provides easy-to-use, high value storage solutions to help people protect, secure, capture and share their valuable digital information. Iomega's award-winning storage products include the new Iomega REV™ 35GB Drive, popular Zip® 100MB, 250MB and 750MB Drives; high-performance Iomega HDD External Hard Drives in desktop and portable configurations; Iomega Mini USB Drives and Micro Mini™ USB Drives; Iomega external CD-RW Drives; Iomega Super DVD Drives and the QuikTouch™ Video Burner; and the Iomega Floppy USB-Powered Drive. Iomega simplifies data protection and sharing at home and in the workplace with Iomega Automatic Backup software, Iomega Sync software, HotBurn® CD-recording software, and Active Disk™ technology. For networks, Iomega NAS servers offer capacities of 160GB to 2TB. For unlimited capacity and anytime, anywhere access, Iomega offers iStorage™ secure online storage. Iomega also offers businesses and consumers a comprehensive data recovery services solution for recovering lost data due to hardware failure, file corruption or media damage. The Company can be reached at 1-888-4-IOMEGA (888-446-6342), or on the Web at www.iomega.com.

*Compressed capacity assuming 2.6:1 data compression with “high” compression on Iomega Automatic Backup Pro software. Capacity may vary and is data and software dependent. 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes

**Compared to DDS-4

LEGAL NOTICE: The statements contained in this release regarding development, production and distribution of the Iomega REV product or software, autoloaders, Boot and Run software, anticipated product pricing and availability dates, expected product performance features and specifications, expected market size, tape drive market size, OEM opportunities, vertical market opportunities, compatibility with third party software, future reliability, future applications for the new product and all other statements about plans or estimated future performance, or those that are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such forward-looking statements are based upon information available to Iomega as of the date hereof, and Iomega disclaims any intention or obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the successful completion of REV product development and testing, market acceptance of, and demand for, the REV product, any failure to achieve OEM adoption or enter vertical markets, any difficulties encountered in ramping up production or other manufacturing issues, including component availability and pricing, co-development, production, and distribution issues, product pricing and conformity to specifications, dependence upon third party suppliers, hardware, software or technical issues or compatibility issues discovered after REV's launch, competition, intellectual property rights and other risks and uncertainties identified in the reports filed from time to time by Iomega with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Iomega's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

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Copyright© 2004 Iomega Corporation. All rights reserved. Iomega, Zip, REV, Boot and Run, Active Disk, iStorage, HotBurn and QuikTouch 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.