Skip to content
Thoughtful, detailed coverage of everything Apple for 33 years
and the TidBITS Content Network for Apple professionals

DAT Note

When asked by a CompuServe user about a DAT drive advertised for a unexpectedly low price, Larry Zulch of Dantz Development wrote:

The picture in the 09-Nov-92 issue of MacWEEK of the NuDesign DAT reveals that it is a WangTek DAT drive mechanism (with an optical drive on top of it).

Ben Wang (no relation to the Wang Laboratories that made word processors) started WangTek, which Rexon bought. He left WangTek/Rexon and founded WangDAT, which was recently purchased by Rexon. It is unclear to me whether WangTek will remain in the DAT business, since WangDAT has more DAT focus (WangTek has a lot of 1/4 inch tape technology) and it doesn’t make sense for Rexon to have two independent DAT drive manufacturers in such a competitive area.

[The moral of the story seems, then, that nothing is wrong with the WangTek unit, but it’s more likely that WangTek units will be orphaned sooner than WangDAT units. I have no sense if that’s a problem, given that it uses Retrospect for software and I suspect that the hardware, if it works well initially, will continue to work fine with proper care. Incidentally, according to a study done by market research firm Peripheral Strategies, Retrospect has a large share of the Macintosh backup market, and that gives it 36% of the entire networked microcomputer backup market, PC-clones included. Morris Taradalsky, Vice President and General Manager of Apple’s Enterprise Systems Division, attributed this to the fact that Macs are a heck of a lot easier to network, so a greater percentage of Macs than PCs are networked. -Adam]

Information from:
Larry Zulch, Dantz President — [email protected]

Subscribe today so you don’t miss any TidBITS articles!

Every week you’ll get tech tips, in-depth reviews, and insightful news analysis for discerning Apple users. For over 33 years, we’ve published professional, member-supported tech journalism that makes you smarter.

Registration confirmation will be emailed to you.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA. The Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.