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From: esink@turia.dit.upm.es
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: NeXT cost on the Slab - re Low End Next
Message-ID: <1991Apr05.124300.5623@dit.upm.es>
Date: 5 Apr 91 12:43:00 GMT
Sender: @dit.upm.es
Reply-To: esink@turia.dit.upm.es ()
Organization: Dept. Ingenieria de Sistemas Telematicos, dit, upm, Madrid, Spain
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My initial reaction to the whole low end NeXT idea is : how much
more low end can NeXT tolerate ?  This is related to my next
NeXT question, which is :

Anybody have any educated guesses concerning the COST of the
NeXTStation ?  Add up the prices of the components.  What
kind of a profit margin are they making here ?  It looks to
me like a real small one.  I was planning on posting my
estimates, but I decided not to - given that I have not yet
seen a Slab, nor do I have any idea what the cost of things
like a DSP chip or UNIX licensing fees are.  Could someone
post a list of major components of the NeXTStation, and guess
what the thing costs them to make ?

Anyway, sure a Low End NeXT would be great.  I want one for
my home.  I'm just not sure what they could cut out to make
it cheaper.  At home, I don't need the networking, but like
someone else mentioned, it would probably be foolish for them
to remove it.  Less RAM ?  Useless, RAM is cheap and the
Slab barely has enough as it is.  68030 ?  Like someone else
said, how much less is that, really ?  Smaller screen ? There's
a possibility.  Less software ? Sure, cut WriteNow (I would
prefer that they did not, myself...), but what else is there
that they could cut out ?  Licensing fees on TeX, GCC, and 
Emacs ?!?  Cheaper keyboard ? I doubt it.  Cut their profit
margin ? See above.  Smaller disk ?  Foolish.  Cut the floppy ?
More foolish.  I don't think I've seen any reasonable
suggestions which actually LOWER the price significantly.
I'm not really complaining, because I don't have any better
suggestions.  I'm just not sure I see that a lowER end NeXT
is all that feasible right now.

Eric


  
Eric W. Sink                     | Putting the phrase      |All opinions
Departamento de Telematica       | "Frequently Asked"      |are mine and
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid| in your kill file is    |not necessarily
esink@turia.dit.upm.es           | not recommended.        |yours.