Avatar aims 250M drive at mobile computer users

Avatar Peripherals Inc. founded last November today unveiled a removable-media hard disk drive designed for mobile users that with its small footprint and high capacity the company believes can take on established competitors.

The company's Shark 250 available immediately is a portable device that weighs 9.7 ounces and packs 250M of storage in the form of a removable 2.5-inch hard disk. The mobile hard drive draws power from a computer's keyboard/mouse port so it does not require an AC adapter. Data is exchanged with the computer through the parallel port. The product will be shown this week at the FOSE show in Washington D.C.

The Shark 250 is positioned against Iomega Corp.'s Zip a 100M drive and SyQuest Corp.'s EZFlyer 230 a 230M product. Avatar Peripherals however says the Shark 250 is faster and lighter than the competing products.

George W. Skaff president of Avatar Peripherals said he believes the Shark 250 offers notebook users seeking more hard drive capacity an alternative to buying a new notebook. The Shark 250 provides the option of "unlimited hard drive expansion in a portable drive " he said.

At FOSE Avatar Peripherals will exhibit in the Acer America Inc./Texas Instruments Inc. booth."The new external drive opens up some interesting possibilities...from an applications point of view " said Craig Jones government channel director at Acer/TI.

The Shark 250's market price is $299. That price includes the drive a 250M removable hard disk and other features.

Additional hard disk media are priced at $39 for a single unit or $99 for three.