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From: philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: More on NeXT pricing...
Message-ID: <1990Sep25.052907.4351@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 25 Sep 90 05:29:07 GMT
Sender: news@Neon.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System)
Reply-To: philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 22

I picked up the latest price lists from the Stanford Bookstore today.

The general trend towards big discounts on the cheapest model is confirmed.
The minimum model is $3153. The next one up has the Extended software release
and an extra 8M of RAM, total $4445. Difference: $1292. If you buy those
things separately, the RAM is $1024 (NeXT's inflated price), and 2.0 extended
in optical is $174. Total: $1198 - BUT of course you can get RAM at much
lower prices than NeXT's.

The next thing I did was to do a slightly unconventional comparison with the
Mac price list. Imagine you are in the market for a laser printer with a fast
PostScript engine, e.g., a LaserWriter IINTX. Stanford price: $3820. Does
NeXT offer an alternative? Their printer is 400dpi (which I presume is an
advantage), but needs a NeXT workstation to drive it. Stanford price for a
NeXT printer: $1229. Total for printer plus minimum NeXT: $4382. Now, this
is $562 more than the Apple printer, but the LaserWriter doesn't have a
nice screen to preview your PostScript, or a 105M hard disk. Also, it's
processor isn't as fast as the NeXT's and it doesn't include a unix
workstation in the price, or very much bundled software...
-- 
Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu