— Daniel Bernoulli, an 18th-century Swiss mathematician, speaking of the importance of knowing math when monetizing a new technology. Never was this more true than with the Bernoulli Box, Iomega's first popular product, which came out in the mid-'80s. The disk system, which was named for the way it followed Bernoulli's Principle, was considered very well-made for its time, but could be quite finicky, and the Box cost thousands of dollars at the time of its release (in part because some models included two disk drives). An Infoworld reviewer, Bernie Zilbergeld, found the product had some issues—largely caused by Iomega itself, which only gave the expensive device a 90-day warranty. "This is an attractive product in many ways and we enjoyed using it, but its high price, short warranty period, lack of self-booting on some machines, and the attention it requires prevent us from giving it a higher rating," he wrote in 1985. (That said, a 1988 review from the same publication gave an updated version of the system higher marks.)"There is no philosophy which is not founded upon knowledge of the phenomena, but to get any profit from this knowledge it is absolutely necessary to be a mathematician."
Five kinds of proprietary PC storage formats used in the '80s and '90s
Magneto-optical disks: First used in Steve Jobs' NeXT computer, the disks were originally intended to allow users to transfer their entire file systems with them when switching computers. They were too slow for that, alas, but the technology of the format did find a second life in the Sony Minidisc, an obscure format that was Big in Japan, with a modest American cult audience.
SyQuest drives: Designed to work in a similar way to how NeXT sold its magneto-optical disks, these portable hard disk drives, which literally had disk platters within their cartridge shells, had a cult of popularity comparable to Zip disks—particularly among the desktop publishing crowd, and particularly in the 44-megabyte size. Eventually, though, Iomega outpaced SyQuest, and the firm filed for bankruptcy in 2002, setting the stage for Iomega to take the firm over.
Compact Floppy Disks: "Over 22 leading American and Japanese makers have agreed on a unified 3" compact floppy disk format for powerful reasons," a 1983 Hitachi ad argues, citing the disk's solid build and ability to store as much as a 5 1/4" disk. But the format, which did not have a sliding metal cover, did not have a standards body behind it like the 3 1/2" floppy did, so when Apple went with the slightly larger floppy, the Compact Floppy Disk was relegated to a slow death.
Floptical drives: These early '90s devices, which offered 21 megabytes of capacity by adding CD-ROM-style lasers to the format, tried to gain a foothold by offering backwards compatibility with existing 3 1/4" floppies. "These will have a dramatic impact on the tape backup companies," analyst Gilbert Held told the New York Times at the time. "When you can put 20 megabytes on a single floptical disk, and you have a 60-megabyte or 80-megabyte hard drive, do you really need tape backup?" The answer to that question was yes—tape drives were fairly successful in the '90s. Floptical, however, wasn't (likely due to its requirement that users install a controller card), and neither was a spiritual successor, Imation's SuperDrive.
SmartMedia cards: Intended to replace floppy disks, these early forms of Flash memory were common in early digital cameras and MP3 players (notably the Diamond Rio), but ultimately failed to win over the initially intended market, in part due to flaws compared to later kinds of Flash memory. One interesting point about these cards: According to PC Magazine, there was at one point an adapter that allowed the flash cards to be read inside of 3.5" floppy drives.
Why Zip disks became so prominent, and why that prominence caused Iomega to belly flop as a company
— A statement on The Unofficial Iomega Click of Death Home Page, a Geocities website that played an important role in informing the public of the "click of death" problem. The website, which raised concerns about Iomega's lack of interest in supporting those with damaged devices or lost data, was one of many outlets that played a role in the launch of another class-action lawsuit, against the firm, Rinaldi v. Iomega. That case was settled in 2001, with those affected receiving rebates on other Iomega products."Many of those who complain loudest about the company on the Web are particularly bitter about what they consider its longstanding unresponsiveness," the Times wrote of Iomega in 1998, less than a month before Kim B. Edwards stepped down.Iomega's founding predated the Web era, but despite the fact it was clearly focused on building cutting-edge technology aimed at consumers, it failed to understand the importance of the internet as a carrier of bad PR. The rumors of the click of death came at the same time people were making Geocities pages about how awful Internet Explorer is.Microsoft never let the hate define IE. Iomega, by charging big bucks for something that people expect to get for free, won a battle but conceded the messaging war.Like many companies of its era, Iomega no longer exists in the form it did during its heyday. It's been mushed up and merged a couple of times (including, at one point, with SyQuest) and now exists as a subsidiary of Lenovo. Its disks linger on in niche uses, but have been fully supplanted by USB drives, SD cards, and the internet.For a few years, though, Iomega pulled off an impressive trick: It turned a proprietary platform into a de facto standard.But it didn't last. And a big reason for that is how it handled those ominous clicks."Last year, the Click of Death was known among a only few people, and many thought it was rumor. Since the introduction of the UICD Home Page at the beginning of 1998, tens of thousands of people from America to Zimbabwe have learned of this very real problem. This site is here to let average consumers make their voice heard."