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From: jmann@angmar.sw.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Why the big price jump?
Message-ID: <2406@lectroid.sw.stratus.com>
Date: 21 Sep 90 12:21:59 GMT
References: <1990Sep21.034515.29804@wam.umd.edu> <386@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU>
Sender: usenet@lectroid.sw.stratus.com
Reply-To: jmann@angmar.sw.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.
Lines: 31

In article <386@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU>, barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry
Merriman) writes:
|>Maybe so, but whats your option? A MAC SE/30 with 8 MB RAM and an 80MB drive
|>will cost you the same, has less memory, speed, screen, and comes with
_no_ bundled 
|>software to speak of. And if---being a CS major---you want a (pseudo) unix 
|>to go with that,  AUX will cost you an extra $2k (!!!) or so.

This is ignoring reality, at least for most non-educational users. Most
folks in the business world who work for a company that uses at least a
couple of Macs get can Mac hardware at a hefty (30+ %) discount. Businessland,
for example, extends their corporate discount on Apple products to all 
individuals who work for the company.  You can bring the price even lower
by shopping around for memory, disk, etc. (I'll even ignore the fact here
that a Mac with 4 M of memory can generally run as many process windows,
switch between processes, etc. as fast as a NeXT with 8 M.)

Add to this software cost. Nobody pays full price for Mac software. Those
who don't know much about where to buy go to their local store and get
a 5-10% discount. Most people seem to know that you use MacConnection,
MacWarehouse, etc., where you get a 40% or so discount.

Don't get me wrong. I love my NeXT, and hope that more businesses make 
use of them. But as a personal computer?  Unless you have money to burn,
or unless you have to do something very specialized and don't have a choice,
a Mac or a PC is still the way to go for most people.
                     

Jim Mann
Stratus Computer
jmann@es.stratus.com