Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!shelby!portia.stanford.edu!declan From: declan@portia.Stanford.EDU (Declan McCullagh) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: An unfulfilled promise... Keywords: shipments problems Message-ID: <1990Aug19.191912.24613@portia.Stanford.EDU> Date: 19 Aug 90 19:19:12 GMT Sender: declan@portia.Stanford.EDU (Declan McCullagh) Organization: Olympic Technologies Lines: 116 Taken without permission from today's (8/19) San Francisco Examiner's Business Section: --- WORLD WAITS FOR NEXT TO FULFILL ITS PROMISE By Bart Ziegler, Associated Press Some experts are starting to wonder whether there is much of a "next" for Steven Jobs' new computer. Launched with splashy publicity in October 1988, the NeXT machine was supposed to revolutionize personal computers, like the Apple that Jobs and former partner Steve Wozniak hatched in a garage in 1976, and the Macintosh that Jobs gave the world in 1984. One of the industry's most innovative creators, Jobs called the NeXT the "best computer in the world." Nearly two years later, NeXT Computer Inc. has hardly made a dent. Only a few thousand of the sleek black boxes have been sold, and the NeXT has failed to generate great interest among corporate computer users, analysts say. "The fundamental problem with NeXT is that they were just born at the wrong time," said Esther Dyson, who publishes the computer industry newsletter Release 1.0. "It's just one more desktop computer," she said. "The next new revolutionary advance is not going to happen on the desktop," but on the new hand-held computers that recognize handwriting, she predicts. Others say the NeXT machine may be too advanced for its own good. For example, it stores data on a state-of-the-art optical disk, which offers vastly more capacity than conventional magnetic "floppy" disks. But optical disks are much slower at retrieving data. Jobs has since offered a faster magnetic hard disk as an option, but still no floppy drive. "Although the machine is exciting intellectually and important from a computer architecture point of view, most customers have work to do. They don't get off on computer technology," said Richard Shaffer, the editor of Technologic Computer Letter, another trade letter. An additional problem for NeXT is the machine's unique operating system, the base layer of software that controls internal computer functions. It makes the NeXT incompatible with other computers at a time when the industry is moving toward interchangeable systems. Software must be specially tailored for the NeXT -- it can't use popular off-the-shelf software such as Lotus 1-2-3. That creates one of its most serious dilemmas: Because relatively little software exists to run on the NeXT, it has a hard time attracting customers. Because there are few customers, software developers are reluctant to write programs for it. "At the moment there still is no major application for which the NeXT machine is the best solution, or even more important, the only solution," Shaffer said. NeXT's critics also say the machine is too expensive -- $9,995 to the general public and $6,495 to universities. It didn't help that the operating system was delayed until almost a year after the computer was unveiled, they add. Jobs, who founded NeXT in 1985 after leaving Apple Computer Inc. in a management dispute, said in January his detractors would be impressed by the fledgling company's performance in six months. Since then, NeXT announced what apparently is its largest contract, the sale of acout 300 machines to William Morris Agency Inc., the Beverly Hills-based talent firm. The company said it chose NeXT because of its ability to store videos of entertainers as well as text-based information. But the industry is still waiting for delivery on Jobs' promise. "I would say there's a certain degree of disappointment," said Beverly Bird, a spokeswoman for Businessland, a computer store chain that signed an exclusive deal with NeXT in March 1989 to retail its machines domestically. At the time, Businessland predicted sales would hit $100 million in the first year. But sales have fallen short. International Data Corp., a high-tech research firm, estimates that fewer than 7,000 NeXTs were sold as of June. NeXT is privately owned and therefore is not obligated to disclose sales or finances. Jobs declined to be interviewed for this article. Bird said the $100,000,000 estimate was based on the availability of NeXT's operating system and applications software. Potential customers are still awaiting ground-breaking software that will entice them to buy the machine, she said. [Rest of article deleted] --- It is educational to note - despite the increasingly interesting applications and growing availability of software and hardware for the machine - that NeXT still hasn't made any significant inroads into the corporate marketplace. Sigh. Perhaps in a few months... After all, didn't someone "in the know" post about an expected product announcement by NeXT in a month or two? $-) -Declan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Olympic Technologies / Registered NeXT Developers \ declan@portia.stanford.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------