It also sells consumer home and automotive storage products.

Consumers already face a maddening array of removable storage products.

But the marketplace will not long tolerate such a wide offering digital storage products.

Sun believes that open storage products and related services will gain 12 percent of the storage market by 2011.

"We're seeing early signs of a rebound in demand for computer servers and storage products," he said.

As storage products go, Zip drives appear to be reasonably dependable.

Other computer makers have also recognized the importance of high-performance data storage products - and the business opportunity in that market.

The two say they will also investigate areas of co-operation on future-generation storage products.

Soon afterward, the introduction of a high-capacity storage product was delayed until the fall.

Offers a wide range of specialized storage products; free catalogue.