Floppy Drives

The floppy disk is one of the oldest parts of a PC. You might

remember the time when a PC used to run solely from floppy disks. You first had

to insert a boot disk to start the system, followed by the floppy containing the

application you wanted to run. Floppies may have lost

some importance with the proliferation of hard drives, but

you still need them to create those crucial emergency disks–be they for an

anti-virus software or an operating system.

The floppy drive market appears to be a one-horse race for

Sony as it leads by a huge margin over the runner up Amkette. Last year, we’d

dropped floppy disks from the User’s Choice Club, but this year, they’re

back again, featuring some amount of competition.

The currently installed base of floppy drives indicated names

such as Imation Super Drive and Samsung. In fact, the installed base in

corporates for Samsung appeared to be more than Amkette. However, being a

one-time purchase, users would normally consider one for a new PC. Here, Sony

took most of the mindshare, followed by Amkette.

Quality is the prime reason for choosing a brand in this

segment. The next most important reason is reliability.

As for region-wise preferences, Sony derives most of its

supporters from the south, as other regions have given average responses.

A worldwide study done by a research agency revealed that the

size of common files, such as those used in office suites, is likely to exceed

1.44 MB by 2001. If this holds true, then floppy drives may be on the verge of

being phased out. It should be interesting to see the alternatives that come up.

As next year is not far away, this might even be the last time we see floppy

drives contending in the User’s Choice Awards. Let’s wait and watch to see

who boots-up as the most preferred alternative. n