SyQuest Technology

SyQuest Technology was an early entrant into the removable hard disk market for personal computers. For many years SyQuest led the market, particularly as a method of transferring large graphical documents to printing service bureaus. SyQuest aimed their products to give personal computer users "endless" hard drive space through the use of for data-intensive applications like desktop publishing, Internet information management, pre-press, multimedia, audio, video, digital photography, fast backup, data exchange, archiving, confidential data security and easy portability for the road.

Products
Early 5.25-inch SyQuest drives were popular with Mac users in 44, 88, and 200 MB capacities. These were connected through the SCSI interface. By September 1996, over 3 million SyQuest drives and over 15 million cartridges had been sold. Later, the high-end of SyQuest's product line included two newer drives: the SyJet 1.5 GB, a 3.5-inch, double platter removable drive, and the EZFlyer 230 MB, on lower-cost 3.5-inch media to compete with Zip drives. A cartridge holding over 4.7GB was promised by the end of 1997.

Decline
SyQuest did not fare as well in later years as Iomega has cornered the Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) market. From 1995 to 1997, sales declined resulting in a series of losses. In the first quarter of 1997 these losses had been reduced to $6.8 million with net revenues increasing to $48.3 million. This compared to a net loss of $33.8 million, or $2.98 per share, on net revenues of $78.7 million for the same period the year before. Substantial restructuring occurred before it eventually went out of business.