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