Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!shl!phil
From: phil@shl.uucp (Phil Trubey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: UUCP and NEWS on the Mac
Message-ID: <1990Oct20.182703.8651@shl.uucp>
Date: 20 Oct 90 18:27:03 GMT
References: <1990Oct11.202517.23699@oswego.Oswego.EDU> <3433@idunno.Princeton.EDU> <1990Oct19.205526.19190@pmafire.UUCP>
Organization: SHL Systemhouse
Lines: 36

In article <1990Oct19.205526.19190@pmafire.UUCP> geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen) writes:
>Yeah.  Seems to me that there's a *much* smaller market for this than
>for, say, CompuServe Navigator, and I doubt how many copies of Navigator
>you'd sell at $395 list.

But CompuServe can subsidize the cost and support for Navigator with
all the future revenue they will be getting from on-line connection
charges.  CompuServe could give away Navigator and still make money.

And you're right, it is a smaller market (maybe, see below) so they
have to charge more to recoup development costs.

Don't get me wrong, I also think $395 is *way* too expensive.  I am not
too sure which target market ICE is going after with a $395 price tag.
Current usenet readers?  Who are they?  (Good question: does anyone
know whether an attempt has been made to classify the types of people
of read usenet?  ie. undergrad students, working for a research company,
working for a profit making company, private connection from home, etc.)
I could be wrong but I would think that most usenet users would have
to spring for uAccess out their own entertainment pocket money.  

I asked Tim of ICE that question a little while back and haven't received a
reply.  Which maybe just means I was too nosy.

I don't know if it has occured to anyone else, but somthing like
uAccess has potentially a much larger target market if it sold right.
It could be sold head to head with Microsoft Mail, and all the other
Mac e-mail packages that businesses are snapping up.  It has much
better WAN support than these packages have and it has great conferencing
abilities to boot.  As far as I know, the Mac market is devoid of
good conferencing programs...

Which would make the $395 price tag realistic...
-- 
Phil Trubey
(UUCP: ...!uunet!shl!phil)