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From: tierney@lbl-csam.arpa (Brian Tierney [SFSU Computer Science Dept])
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Will the Next sell?
Message-ID: <4283@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 22 Nov 89 17:26:31 GMT
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I have a Next in the same office where I work, and I've used it some,
and think it's a really great machine. But the question occurs to me,
who will actually spend money on this machine? Who are they marketing
this thing for?  They can't possibly expect to make much money on the
University market alone.

First, why I would never buy one:
    I need (and have on my Sun SPARCstation) AT LEAST 30M of ram and
 a 12 MIP machine. I also need to be able to run X windows.  For about
the same price as a Next, I get this with a SparcStation (true, it's a
diskless node, and disks are expensive, but you get the point).
And to any scientists out there who say 'I don't need 30M of RAM or
X windows', just a 1-2 years, you will.

Second, why Joe average will never buy one:
    It's too damn expensive, and a $1000 AT clone run's all the
software he needs.


Third, the business community:
   Here, I'm not sure, but it seems most company's would rather spend
$4000 for a 386 machine running Xenix and an 80M drive than $10,000
for a Next with a 330M drive. We'll see...


Is there another major group I'm forgetting (remember, Universities
don't really count, they get such a big discount).

So in general, the Next seems to be not powerful enough for the scientific
community, and too expensive for everbody else.


Anyone care to comment?

--
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| Brian Tierney, Computer Graphics Lab  | internet:   tierney@george.lbl.gov  |
| Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories        | or arpa:    tierney@lbl-csam.arpa   |
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