There used to be a time when the Zip drive was a must-have accessory for computer users. I got one of the first drives that supported 100 MB disks and connected through the parallel port. Naturally, I upgraded and got the USB-powered 250 MB version when it became available. I had no fewer than 12 Zip disks, containing all kinds of information that I couldn’t afford to lose. Now, that Zip drive and those disks haven’t been used in such a long time that I literally just found them. Clearly I didn’t miss them much…but what happened?

The Zip drive was very popular when everyone was using 1.44 MB floppy disks. Prior to that, there was no way to move a large amount of information from one computer to another (keep in mind that very few people had home networks then). The Zip drive came along at a reasonable price and with an insane amount of storage for the time, and it took off like hotcakes. The problem is that Iomega followed up in the market they pretty much created. They had no idea that on the horizon would be a whole host of alternatives offering faster, more universal access to data. Enter the CD burner. Iomega was behind the times on that, and I believe that is the primary reason that the Zip drive market shrunk. Following up on that were USB-powered external hard drives, DVD burners, and more recently, USB flash drives. All of these now offer more data storage and better plug-and-play support than the Zip drive ever could have hoped to have (though at one point it was so popular that Windows began shipping with a Zip drive driver).

It’s too bad for Iomega. They pretty much went the way of Palm and Netscape: they defined a market and then failed to follow up and keep the market as their own. Now, you can find Zip drives with tons of disks selling on eBay for less than ten dollars. I guess that means my Zip drive will either be thrown out or given away to someone who still uses Zip disks, because putting something up on eBay for less than ten dollars hardly seems worth the trouble.

Side note: I recently put five things up on eBay, three DVDs, one CD, and one PlayStation game. None of them got even a single bid. What happened to the place where you could once or buy or sell anything?

Disclaimer: Any viewpoints and opinions expressed in this article are those of Nicholas C. Zakas and do not, in any way, reflect those of Yahoo!, Wrox Publishing, O'Reilly Publishing, or anyone else. I speak only for myself, not for them.

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