Maxtor Corp has temporarily suspended marketing of its first erasable optical disk drive, the 3.5 Fiji disk, citing the need to restrain spending after poor profit margins in recent quarters. The 3.5 drive is being made for Maxtor by Seiko Epson Corp, and some observers suggest that the real reason for the delay is that the Japanese company is not longer happy that the product, with its 100mS average access time, will be competitive. At all events, Maxtor has decided to concentrate first on its premium erasable drive, the internally developed Tahiti, which was to have followed Fiji into the market. The firm hopes to start volume shipments of the 1Gb, 30mS access unit in March.
