Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!fernwood!uupsi!grebyn!ckp From: ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: NeXT Press Release Message-ID: <1991Apr8.142326.28930@grebyn.com> Date: 8 Apr 91 14:23:26 GMT References: <1991Apr7.042318.26991@sugar.hackercorp.com> <-o2G3=mj1@cs.psu.edu> Distribution: comp Organization: Grebyn Timesharing Lines: 45 In article <-o2G3=mj1@cs.psu.edu> melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes: > >In article <1991Apr7.042318.26991@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes: > > "Professional workstations", eh? "We can't really sell that many systems so > we'll redefine our market segment to make us look good". Fine, then we'll > just define a market segment that includes the Amiga and excludes most of Apple > and IBM, and get results like these: > > Sales of personal workstations: > > IBM: 0 > Apple: 2000 > NeXT: 8000 > Commodore: 1,000,000 > > >Yeah, Commodore is #1. Now when will I be able to run Word Perfect >and Lotus(or Excel or Wingz or any big name spreadsheet) on it? You missed the point. Peter didn't include Lotus or WP in the market definition. He did this deliberately, so toimprove Commodore's standing. He did this to illustrate the problems with the NeXT press release, which named it the #2 selling professional workstation. The release itself defines what a professional workstation is, and they proceeds to give the NeXT high rankings. Such a definition is worthless. We can do the same, and it's just as valid. This is common in marketing. IBM announced the RISC System 6000 as a 27 MIPS workstation. The MIPS they used were based on Dhrystone 1.1, which most consider invalid. Motorola and DG promptly switched from their own definition of MIPS, under which the 20MHz 88K chip got 17 MIPS, to IBM's definition, where the 88K "suddenly" shot up to 28 MIPS. Fair is fair, right? By defining the "personal workstation" as "any computer which uses a Motorola 68K-based core, runs a multi-tasking operating system in only 512K of RAM, and has a flexible and powerful expansion architecture" we can create a class of computers with only one member, Amiga. And therefore, we can be the market leader. -- First comes the logo: C H E C K P O I N T T E C H N O L O G I E S / / ckp@grebyn.com \\ / / Then, the disclaimer: All expressed opinions are, indeed, opinions. \ / o Now for the witty part: I'm pink, therefore, I'm spam! \/