Since the basic Syquest and Iomega drive systems have had their greatest use by graphics users working with service bureaux, it seemed appropriate to talk to a service bureau that uses this technology.  The idea was not to conduct a grand survey, but to get an opinion from a pro.  Howard Greenberg, of New York's Axiom Design Systems, provides support to many of New York's foremost illustrators as well as running a good size studio of his own.  His views are interesting, because they are both technologically adroit and grounded in good business.

Greenberg's shop has always been Mac-oriented; he has had Syquest drives in place since they became popular.  They accommodate both local needs and work sent by customers for pre-press and related services.  Rarely, says Greenberg, is more than a 44mb cartridge needed, and most of his customers are just now upgrading -- if at all -- to Syquest 88C type drives (the ones that will read and write both 44mb and 88mb cartridges.

When Iomega introduced its 90mb removable disk system, it seeded a few in New York service bureaux -- among them, Axiom Design.  At the end of a year, Iomega wanted the drive back, or to sell it to Axiom at a discount.  Greenberg's decision: send the drive back.  The business reason for this decision: only a few jobs had been generated by the presence of the Bernoulli drive.  Then too, the discount offered was not attractive.

Of course, Greenberg thinks Iomega's great mistake was its failure to really create a presence in service bureaux; if twenty firms had had the drives, he said, it might have created the critical mass to affect the market.

While we were talking, we also asked Greenberg about newer Syquest/SyDOS products, especially the new 3.5" Marlin drives.  Greenberg's view:  The additional 40mb storage (uncompressed) on the Marlin 110mb removable disk was not sufficient to compensate for its variance from the 5.25" cartridge format used in earlier models.  He believes that for people using removable disks to transport large graphics files, either the present sizes suffice, or a substantially larger disk (on the order of 256mb -- in removable disks, pretty much limited to substantially more expensive optical drive systems) is needed.