Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!uc!noc.MR.NET!gacvx2.gac.edu!gacvx2.gac.edu!scott From: scott@mcs-server.gac.edu (Scott Hess) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NeXT Press Release Message-ID: Date: 11 Apr 91 13:09:53 GMT Article-I.D.: mcs-serv.SCOTT.91Apr11080953 References: <11278@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <4991@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College Lines: 52 Nntp-Posting-Host: mcs-server.gac.edu In-reply-to: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com's message of 9 Apr 91 17:55:41 GMTLines: 52 In article <4991@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann) writes: In article <11278@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> #admiral@m-5.Sun.COM (Michael Limprecht SUN Microsystems Mt. View Ca.) writes: > In article , melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes: > > On Professional Workstation Shipments: > > > > SUN 11,000 > > NeXT 8,000 > > HP 3,000 > > DEC 1,000 > > IBM 1,000 > > > What marketeze! At least if your going to make up a market segment > you could at least think of one where your the leader. > What nonsense. In only a couple of years, NeXT has gone from a bit player to the 2nd biggest workstation seller in its major market -- only a bit behind Sun which has been aiming at this market for years and years. Also, what do you mean by "make up a market segment." Don't you think the professional business market is a valid market segment, clearly differentiated from R&D, computational, etc. markets? Well, even if we grant that you can make up a new market (essentially, they did, even if it may be valid - say Sun now makes up a market of a certain type of secrataries of physical scientists, labels it "Professional Research Assistants" and says they massively outsell everyone else in their market - I'd have to quibble), I think it's a wee stretch saying that every one of the NeXTs out there is a "Professional Workstation". Because, the uses we put our NeXTs to on campus look an awful lot like what other schools use their Suns for - ie, upper-level computer science, AI, compilers, and the like. I, for one (I may or may not be counted in that 8,000 - I just now got my machine) do not want to be considered a "Professional Workstation User". Call me a Hacker, that's what I am, more or less. (My one quibble with the figures is the IBM figure. I think the NeXT figures only include Unix boxes, not the many IBM 386 and 486 machines running OS/2 or DOS.) Which is, in essence, the same quibble I have. Later, -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad "Simply press Control-right-Shift while click-dragging the mouse . . ." "I smoke the nose Lucifer . . . Banana, banana."