It has introduced larger and smaller storage formats including the two-Gigabyte Jaz disk and the 40 Mb Clik! drive on sale since summer

It has introduced larger and smaller storage formats, including the two-Gigabyte “Jaz” disk and the 40 Mb “Clik!” drive, on sale since summer.The Clik! drive particularly pits Iomega, and its business model, against the standard business model used by storage formats such as “flash” memory, which holds sway in digital cameras. Flash memory is like computer RAM, except it retains the data stored after the power goes off. It’s convenient – a chip you can hold and carry around – but expensive: a 48MB flash memory card can cost more than £100, compared to £80 for 10 Clik! disks, which would have 10 times the capacity.Iomega has persuaded Agfa to use Clik! disks in one of its digital camera models, and there is a Japanese MP3 player that uses them. For Iomega, every person who buys one of those cameras or MP3 players is a potential future revenue stream. More importantly, they will now know the company’s name, and become a potential target for all of its other products.One of Iomega’s biggest threats is the rise of rewritable CDs, which can hold up to 650 Mb of data. That’s substantially more than a Zip disk (though only a third as much as its “Jaz” disks).

Even more dangerous is that CD-R (as the technology is called) is an open standard. Anyone can play, and the competition is brutal.Now, CD writers are being offered as standard to people who buy new PCs. “In IT, storage is the most cut-throat area, and removable storage the tightest of that area,” says Mr Sanchez. With the rise of CD-RW, as it is called, amid all these PC users who are still using floppies, he is like a razor-blade salesman parachuted into the Land of Bearded Men – only to find some smart-alec is on the radio talking about how you can make an electric shaver.”If not enough people know what they could be getting with Iomega, then they might just go with an open standard such as optical storage,” he says. “The momentum for optical technology is unbreakable.”Does that mean Iomega has to revise its business plan? “We want to be the leader in smart, portable, removable solutions. It could even be independent of the technology.”True, optical media don’t offer us a big profit margin, though people like Yamaha and Ricoh are making money on it.” The lesson that he (and everyone else) has learnt from Microsoft is that the way to make money is through software.So when you buy an Iomega disk drive, you also get free software to copy data automatically on to them, also automatically cataloguing what files are on what disk – a boon for those with lots of disks, and the chronically disorganised.Iomega is also tying up deals with Adobe and Symantec: with the latter it sold many disks at the end of 1999 playing on Millennium Bug fears by offering a check for Year 2000 bugs plus Zips disks – just in case Thousands of worried people bought. But despite the rise of the Internet, and its means of storing data (such as Web pages or free “virtual disks” on Websites), Iomega is counting on people wanting their files in something they can hold, or give away.”Humans want a certain amount of empowerment,” says Mr Sanchez “Sure, our key theme is still, ‘Your stuff is safe here’ But it’s also about sharing.”.

1Will you really stop development at Luton because of the row over landing fees?

1Will you really stop development at Luton because of the row over landing fees?
We are not going to lift what we have at Luton, but we are going to put our growth into other airports in Europe if the fees increase We’ve been negotiating with Luton for three years. We even offered to buy it from the council but they created a tender and London Luton Airport Operations won, which is 60 per cent owned by Barclays Bank. They then created an oversized, unsuitable terminal, which is totally under-utilised. It’s now a Mexican stand-off with the Government sitting in the middle as umpire.2Peter Middleton, resigned last week as chairman of Luton Airport the same day you placed a full-page advertisement in the London Evening Standard, criticising Barclays.

A coincidence?The timing was impeccable, but it was probably an accident waiting to happen. I think Peter Middleton took over with the desire to run things and soon realised that Barclays wouldn’t let him get on with it. The first time I met him, he stormed out of the room.We then exchanged some very angry letters In fact, I should publish the last one he sent me. He said: “I used to run Lloyds when it was turning over so many billions in fees, I used to run Solomon Brothers when it was turning over so many billions on the trading floor and I’m not going to be intimidated by you and your little company.” It was a very arrogant letter.3You’ve bought Mercedes-Benz for your car rental business. Would you buy Rovers or BMWs?When I said: “I want to buy 5,000 cars who will to talk to me?” every carmaker responded except for Rover. They were so badly managed that no one even returned my calls.