Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: An interesting idea...
Message-ID: <1991May9.174002.2765@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix -- Houston, TX
References: <=0bGppm&1@cs.psu.edu> <1991May8.174950.778@sugar.hackercorp.com> <babG3=h#1@cs.psu.edu>
Date: Thu, 9 May 1991 17:40:02 GMT

In article <babG3=h#1@cs.psu.edu> melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes:
> In article <1991May8.174950.778@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>    The NeXT is priced a little under the low end of workstations, and is way
>    overpriced as a PC. And it doesn't have any unique new capability that gives
>    it a niche.

> A low end workstation is 5K or 10K?  That extra 5K will buy me a new
> car :-).

Anything over 2K is out of the PC market, really. The workstation market
bottoms out right where the NeXT lives... the $5K mark.

> The NeXT freeware/shareware market is just now starting to take off.

The freeware/shareware market is not going to sell boxes. Shrink-wrapped
applications are. And when the beancounters see an app for $1000 on the NeXT,
and the corresponding app for $400 on Windows, that's going to hurt NeXT.

> I imagine there are $2000 PC and Mac programs.  That really isn't a problem.

Yes, but they're the rare exception. There are several in the software catalog
alone, which is an incredibly high proportion.

> No way.  I'm not going to pay workstation prices.  Look again.  How
> much do WP, Improv, Wingz, Diagram, Illustrator, DataPhile, TopDraw,
> Create, WriteNow(free, trick question) each cost?

4-500 dollars on up. Instead of 1-200 dollars for PC software.

> You see high-end
> workstation prices for some of the traditionally high-end workstation
> products like Oracle and Ingres.

Yes, we're running Oracle on our 386/16 UNIX boxes at work. You can keep it.

> But it isn't equivalent and it doesn't even come close.  Run Windows
> 3.0 on a 386SX then show people the NeXT.

I've done the equivalent. We're running a trade show demo that runs Windows
next to a Sparcstation-2 running Open Look. That's an even hotter box than
the NeXT, so the Sparc should blow them away. The beancounters (remember, Jobs
is trying to sell to business) can't tell the difference even when you explain
it to them.

> Run Word for Windows on a 386SX and show them a Mac Classic :-).

"Where's the color?" It's true! They "need" color for their word processors.

> Their employees being more productive using Illustrator, Improv, Word
> Perfect, etc. on a NeXT rather than a PC or Mac will convince them.

(a) Are they going to be more productive, or just do more Macdinking?
(b) Given the price differential, they're not going to give it a chance.

> Hell, anyone doing DTP will immediately see an advantage to the NeXT
> just by looking at the NeXT price($5000 Peter) and the computer itself
> running TopDraw or FrameMaker.

Fine. And here they're running head to head with Apple (who has just cut
their price dramatically). When there are people buying Macs expressly for
desktop video, when the difference between the Amiga and the Mac is bigger
tahn the difference between the NeXT and the mac in DTP, I can't see NeXT
unseating Apple here. Especially with no entry level machine.

> An extra $3000 a seat?  How well do Windows apps really run on 386SX
> computers?

Just as well as on DX. Windows apps run in 286 mode, so the extra 2 bytes
per data fetch doesn't buy you anything.

> You seem to think that they are sufficient for most business needs.

I'll let you in on a secret. A PC/XT is sufficient for most business
needs.

Really. A 386 is massive overkill.
-- 
Peter da Silva.   `-_-'
<peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.
