Released by Imation:
Imation survey reveals users still rely on storage media diversity
Storage buyers say: Quality beats price for media, but we'll buy DVD recorders when they drop below £200
Bracknell, 7th July 2003 - UK buyers love recordable CDs, are embracing recordable DVDs, but contrary to recent reports magnetic media, such as the floppy diskette are still hugely popular at home and in the office. These are the findings of a survey released today by Imation, the leading supplier of magnetic and optical removable data storage media. The online survey of 2,900 people was carried out by Imation in six European countries: UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
Aimed at discovering users' personal and professional buying habits in the removable storage market, the survey found that, although DVD technology is gradually gaining a foothold, it is still far outpaced by CD-Rs and CD- RWs. Another interesting observation of the survey was that diskettes and magnetic tapes are both still very popular for storing digital data, with61% of respondents still using floppy disks.
Quality over cost
When it comes to buying storage media, quality is more important than price to UK purchasers with a staggering 89.3% stating that it was either important or very important, with only 69% saying the same of price. Brand loyalty comes bottom of the pile with 59.3% of UK buyers saying this matters to them. The EU averages were 83%, 60% and 52.4% respectively.
DVD burner buyers waiting for a price dip
The future for the optical market is looking strong, with 90% (EU 84%) of respondents owning a CD burner and 9% (EU 9%) owning DVD burners. Less than 1% of respondents were in the process of buying a DVD recorder now, but a huge 57% (EU 41%) are waiting for the price to drop below £200. 61% (EU53.2%) of respondents already owned a DVD player.
"Although consumers appear to be waiting for the price of drives to come down, there is another major factor influencing the uptake of write-once and re-writeable DVDs (RAM, R and RW) storage mediums and that is the confusing variety of formats", Barry Edmonds, Managing Director of Imation UK commented. "Since Imation markets all five DVD formats, we can trace sales developments very accurately in this sector, and in attempt to reduce uncertainty on which media format to use, we have compiled a number of guides. Our brochures and practical aids, such as the 'DVD selector', give both users and the distributor or reseller comprehensive information on the advantages and possible uses of each format."
What's being burnt?
Data archiving and backup was the most popular use for CD-R/CD-RW at 78% (EU 77%). Next came multimedia with music at 75% (EU 70%) and photography at 63% (EU 59%). Although still a new medium, owners are making the most of the capacity of recordable DVDs, with 60% using them for video applications and 42% for data archiving and backup.
Technological diversity
Users are relying on the diversity of storage products available to meet their varying needs and this is evident in the results. Although a majority of 98.3% (EU 87.9%) stated that they bought CD-Rs, diskettes, with 61% (EU69.9%) are still in second place. As for data backup purposes, magnetic tape media, at 18.6% (EU 18.5%), are still clearly ahead of DVDs, which are only used by 6.9% (EU 14%) of owners for this purpose.
"This corresponds fairly closely with our own observations", Barbara Anderton, UK Marketing Manager added. "Particularly in the office and work environment CD-Rs are by no means a standard product yet. Diskettes still appear to be the most popular removable data storage medium used in many offices and public authorities. Floppies have been used for decades and have proven to be highly reliable, economical and can be written to on any PC. In addition, for many office applications they still provide more than adequate storage capacity."
Information on the survey
The survey was conducted in the internet among consumers participating in a sales promotion campaign and competition held in Summer 2002. In all, more than 130,000 people from ten countries took part and 2492 entrants from six uropean countries subsequently answered to a voluntary, partially anonymized survey. They were asked questions on 28 topics (with a total of170 individual criteria), multiple responses only being allowed in a limited number of questions. In addition to some demographic information, the main information collected was on the use of digital storage media. The surveyees were requested to check boxes next to standardized answers. The above summary describes a selection of the data obtained. The figures are rounded to the first decimal fraction or to a full unit. The returned questionnaires were evaluated at the end of 2002, a process which was not concluded until the beginning of 2003. The results thus represent the latest available information. Imation's comments on these results are based on independent market data and market estimates not deduced from the survey but by other means.
About Imation
Imation Corp. is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of magnetic and optical removable data storage media. With one of the broadest product lines in the industry - spanning from a few megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes of capacity in each piece of media, Imation serves customers in more than 60 countries, in both business and consumer markets. From large data centers to distributed networks, Imation's tape cartridges are used in data processing, security, business continuity, backup and archiving applications. Customer needs for reliability, convenience and portability to store and manage business data, photos, video, images and music on professional and home desktops and increasingly in consumer electronics devices drive demand for Imation's optical and diskette products. With more than 300 technology scientists and over 300 patents in the U.S. alone, Imation continues to pioneer today's proven magnetic and optical media technologies. As of December 2002, Imation employed approximately 2,800people worldwide. Revenues from outside the U.S. contribute approximately49percent of total sales. Imation Corp. is located in Oakdale, Minnesota, USA, the European Headquarters is based in Schiphol, near Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
www.imation.com
