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From: tagreen@lothario.ucs.indiana.edu (Todd Green)
Subject: Re: Steven P. Jobs reality distortion field?
Message-ID: <1991Apr21.202955.18034@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Sender: news@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Indiana University Computing Services
References: <1991Apr21.060729.21077@rick.cs.ubc.ca>
Distribution: comp.sys.next
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 91 20:29:55 GMT
Lines: 62

In article <1991Apr21.060729.21077@rick.cs.ubc.ca> h5346866@rick.cs.ubc.ca (bradley don head) writes:
>	Well, *sigh* I just read the major Steven Paul Jobs *FLAME* in the
>April 29, 1991 issue of Forbes. :-( I must say, this kind of journalism 
>doesn't do a whole lot for the good of NeXT. Where are the major marketing

Truth hurts sometimes doesn't it.

>that this is a capable computer. It's fine to boast that the academia
>loves the NeXT, but we need to convince the rest (i.e. the majority) that
>the NeXT is here.

Well not all in academia "love" the NeXT.  There are quite of few
people here at IU that are not for it and would rather have
DECStations, or SPARCstations.  Personally, I love my NeXT, but I
would not go so far as to say that it (or he) has won the academic world over.

>It seems that the journalism industry loves to knock a newcomer. Yes, 
>it's tough to crack into the computer industry with a new offering -
>but the NeXT an exceptional new offering. It would appear by the article

While I agree that the NeXT is a fabulous machine hardware wise, I
think it has some major flaws conceptually.  1) X should have been
supported by Jobs from day one. 2) Objective-C and NeXTStep as the main
developement language and interface.  Again, these are not just my personal views
(the more I use IB, and OOP, the more I love it, but many around here
do not.)

>by Julie Pitta (Forbes) that she equates marketing skills with managing
>skills. If that is the case, I must agree. Yes, credit Steven Jobs with
>visionary greatness, and perhaps even managerial prowess - but a 

The thing that I found most striking about the article was Ms. Pitta's
lack of knowledge of technical information.  Namely  this line:
	
	"Yet the NeXT ... still uses an off-the-shelf Motorola processor
	 rather than a more powerful reduced-instruction-set processor
	 of the sort Sun puts in its workstations."

Off-the-shelf?  Please, sounds like you can go to Radio-Shack, or a
hardware store and pick one of these puppies up. (Please no flames
about Radio Shack...it just seems a defacto standard to pick on).  In
anycase I'd hardly call an '040 chip in the manner.  She makes it
sound like a chip used to control a microwave, or toy airplane.

>marketing wizbot, I think not *double sigh*. Come on Steve, break through
>that reality distortion field you *seem* to be caught in and get yourself
>some aggressive marketing! Sales will come, I believe that, but not without
>aggressive marketing. You've convinced the academia, now convince the rest

As the article points out only 15,000 machines have EVER been sold.
I'd hardly call that convincing the market (academic or otherwise).
If more sales don't start happening fast, I think we'll see the
beloved black box go bye-bye.  After all it must cost Steve and arm
and a leg to keep those bleached oak floors nice and spiffy.

>[rest and .sig deleted]

Todd
-- 
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