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From: raveling@isi.edu (Paul Raveling)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: 340 Pricing policy
Message-ID: <9505@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 5 Sep 89 18:24:11 GMT
References: <240047@grlab.UUCP>
Sender: news@venera.isi.edu
Reply-To: raveling@isi.edu (Paul Raveling)
Organization: Information Sciences Institute, Univ. of So. California
Lines: 31

In article <240047@grlab.UUCP>, lavar@grlab.UUCP (LaVar Edwards) writes:

> Can anyone explain the following pricing policies to me?
> ...
> We recently purchased a HP9000/340M workstation with the following:
> ...
>    The total price was $5,640 (list)
> ...
>  An additional 4 Mbytes parity-checked RAM is $5,000 ($4,250 if you purchase
>  the additional memory with the system)
> ...
>  Does this mean that you should be able to purchase a 340 without memory
>  for $640?

	It sounds as if competition is leading workstation vendors to
	use a marketing approach that came into favor about a decade
	ago with low end (home) personal computers and video games:
	Sell the original system at a loss to capture customers,
	then make enough extra profit on accessories to survive.

	Just as every competitor in the games & home computer market
	had to do this to survive, and even then many didn't, it appears
	that competition in the workstation market is becoming much
	the same.  Companies have a huge incentive to offer an easy
	path into their fold of customers, and I'll bet virtually all
	are selling at least some low end workstations at a loss.


----------------
Paul Raveling
Raveling@isi.edu