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From: cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: cost of development
Message-ID: <2106@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 5 Nov 90 19:10:04 GMT
References: <3375.271cee3c@cc.helsinki.fi> <65661@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <3412.272092ad@cc.helsinki.fi> <656@tron.UUCP> <3470.272437eb@cc.helsinki.fi> <658@tron.UUCP>
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In article <658@tron.UUCP> (Bill Shipley) writes:
>According to a recent news article, NeXT sold about 7,000 machines in their
>first year. This does not appear to be enough to support large scale
>application development. 

> ... but at the rate they are selling I would expect new software to 
> appear much more slowly than it did for the ST.


Software sells for a _lot_ more money on the NeXT, selling 1000
packages at $2,000 is equivalent to selling 10,000 packages
at $200 or 20,000 and $100. Remember that the sale price to the
developer is the one he or she charges the distributor. The 
price to the end user is about 40 - 50% higher. When is the
last time you paid $150 for a program for the Atari? Did
19,999 other people buy it to? (Probably not, selling 1,000
copies of a non-game type program on the Atari platform is
considered to be a major "hit") Add up the numbers for yourself.
1000 * 150 = $150,000. That is enough to pay for one full time
programmer for a year and have $50,000 left over. Advertising,
shows, and production will eat out most of that $50,000 leaving
about $5,000. It's really tough to make a living on $5,000 a
year.


--
--Chuck McManis						    Sun Microsystems
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: <none>   Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"I tell you this parrot is bleeding deceased!"