Here comes the terabyte hard drive

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If we were talking RAM, you'd be right.

But, some time ago, hard drive manufacturers decided to go with decimal metric instead of binary metric, because it makes the numbers look bigger for marketing purposes. 520MB looks bigger than 512MB, for instance.

As a side note: Jack Tramiel did the same thing when he took over Atari and produced the Atari ST series. The original STs came in two models, the flagship of which was the first personal computer to come standard with 1MB of RAM.

Jack decided to give the models numbers based on how much RAM they had (as that was the salient difference between the two), and he also decided to express this in decimal kBs, not binary. He claimed it was to make things simpler for the consumer, who didn’t understand that in computerese, “kilo” meant 1024× not 1000×. Of course, the fact that the decimal kilobytes produced a larger, more impresive number, probably had nothing to do with his decision (the preceeding statement was brought to you by Dripping™ Sarcasm®).

Larger number or no, this may well have turned out to be one of the great marketing blunders in computer history. The ST line sold very well in Canada, Europe, etc., but failed miserably in the USA. Why? Nobody knows for sure, but I strongly suspect that it has to do with the model number of the flagship model.

Can a model number alone really make or break a product? In this case, I really think so. Think about it: 512MB binary = 520MB decimal. So, the flagship model, with twice as much RAM, would have a model number twice as big as that of the lower-end Atari 520ST. What would that model number be? Why, the Atari 1040ST!

1040 — easily the most hated, loathed, and despised four-digit number to the vast majority of American citizens. If you don’t get it yet, you will around mid-April.

This conflicted with the Atari ST marketing spiel: “Fun, Friendly, and Easy-to-Use.” Those are adjectives that nobody in his or her right mind has ever applied to the other 1040!

Posted by: Joel R   Posted on: 01/05/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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