Commenting on its first quarter figures (opposite) Storage Technology Corp said gross margins in the first quarter improved sharply year over year and held steady compared to the fourth quarter. It also said savings from expense reductions should bring in $30m in savings this year. The loss for the quarter was attributed to expenses associated with acquisition of Network Systems Corp in March.But Iceberg is clearly not going nearly as well as the company had hoped. Chief executive Ryal Poppa said robust demand for TimberLine tape subsystems and the addition of significant Iceberg revenue helped raise revenue 39% in our high-end storage business compared with 1994 figures. It brought 120 Iceberg storage devices to revenue, a lower figure than some analysts had expected. But more are bigger ones, bringing in a higher unit price. Unit shipments of Iceberg in the quarter were down on the fourth quarter, but the firm expected this; it claims 8% of the market addressed by Iceberg.
