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From: blenko-tom@cs.yale.edu (Tom Blenko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Why the big price jump?
Message-ID: <26299@cs.yale.edu>
Date: 22 Sep 90 05:40:55 GMT
References: <1990Sep21.034515.29804@wam.umd.edu> <3142@uakari.primate.wisc.edu> <45044@apple.Apple.COM>
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In article <45044@apple.Apple.COM> north@Apple.COM (Don North) writes:
|
|It should be obvious why NeXT is pricing their new systems, especially at
|the low end, where they are - they are in SURVIVAL MODE.  Believe me, when
|you analyze the COST (NOT end-user PRICE)  of the components going into
|these boxes, they are selling them basically at break-even.  The ONLY way
|that NeXT is going to make it to 1995 is to build market share NOW.

I can remember when Jobs came out with the Macintosh (for about the
same price as the new NeXT, I note).  This was after the Lisa flopped,
and people said the very same thing -- he's running with a small margin
and he's betting the company. Well, Apple's still around, selling
Macintoshes and making lots money, and lots of people are glad of
that.

I took a serious look at getting a Mac over a year ago. Frustrated in
all my attempts to find out anything concrete from Apple about A/UX.
Even today, it looks expensive, $5K or $6K to buy a IIci that very well
might not meet my performance needs, and back then it cost even more.
So I decided that they didn't have what I wanted, what they had cost
too much, and I wasn't going to buy anything.

The price/performance of the NeXT machine is causing me to seriously
reconsider.  There are probably other people out there in the same
situation.  Doing a better job of giving people what they want is what
business is about, and I think it will be interesting to see what
competitive forces this move brings to bear on the market. Consumers
like me are sure to be the winners.

	Tom