Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!adm!cmcl2!yale!cs.yale.edu!blenko-tom
From: blenko-tom@CS.YALE.EDU (Tom Blenko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: A kind word...
Message-ID: <6431@cs.yale.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 89 23:19:43 GMT
References: <4275@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <21327@ut-emx.UUCP>
Sender: news@cs.yale.edu
Reply-To: blenko-tom@CS.YALE.EDU (Tom Blenko)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept, New Haven CT  06520-2158
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In article <21327@ut-emx.UUCP> kdp9565@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Keith D.  Perkins) writes:
|In article <4275@helios.ee.lbl.gov> stefan@csam.lbl.gov (Stefan gottschalk) writes:

I think these are the wrong questions.

Does anyone know of a large-scale purchase where NeXT has beat out the
competition (Macs, Suns, or PCs)? I don't, and I'm willing to bet that
there haven't been many.

If not, why not? Well, it either doesn't have the price/value to beat
the competition, or it does but purchasers don't know that it does.

We can look for additional software, cleaner software, more bang for
the buck, or configurations for fewer bucks to address the first
problem.

NeXT apparently thinks there are problems in the latter category also,
hence the announcement some time ago (but not mentioned in this
newsgroup) that Jobs had taken over the marketing of the box.

One way that I think the NeXT is unlike the Mac is that the Mac was
bought by the person on the street, who convinced himself/herself that
it was worthwhile and became an evangelist.  Apple is reaping the
rewards today.  I don't think this is going to happen (on any scale)
with the NeXT in the forseeable future.

While I'm under the impression that NeXT has plenty of cash, they can't
play indefinitely in this market (however it's defined) unless they
have volume. I don't think they've figured out how to get it yet.

	Tom