Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!unido!uniol!Andy.Hewett From: Andy.Hewett@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Andy Hewett) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Steven P. Jobs reality distortion field? Message-ID: Date: 25 Apr 91 09:52:50 GMT References: <1991Apr21.060729.21077@rick.cs.ubc.ca> <1991Apr22.163450.1@sif.claremont.edu> <1504@toaster.SFSU.EDU> Organization: University of Oldenburg, Germany Lines: 76 Gerhard.Moeller@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Gerhard Moeller) writes: >Just a few words from my point of view. (I'm German, studying Computing >Science at Oldenburg, FRG) >You are discussing if NeXT is treating you well or not. Ok, here's how >they treat us in Europe: >Students pay the same as any rich company or any person on the street. >There is NO special offer at all. (However, they promised to give 5% >off... - Probably after they raised the prices.) >For me it is cheaper to buy a color-SPARC than a color-NeXT. This is >because sun makes good university-offers. MOST companies (sun, apple, >etc.) have VERY GOOD OFFERS for students (up to 40% off). NeXT doesn't >seem interested. The same applies to University Departments (at least in Germany). There is NO discount for teaching or research or for anything. The only exception is if we are prepared to buy 20 or more (15% discount was the sum mentioned in an informal discussion). Of course, if I was buying 20 lampshades then there would also be some room for bargaining. Just in case there is any confusion, the systems sold in Germany are no different from the US models. Therefore there is not the excuse of translation costs for the OS or manuals, or different keyboards etc. >Why? Well, I guess the problem is the following: Motorola is - as far as >I know - still not able to sell the 68040 processors in reasonable >amounts. NeXT sells more computers than they can build. In Germany the >industry seems to be a more profitable market than universities. And >there might be some other reasons as well... Well, possibly another reason is the distribution structure. There are three authorized distributors in Germany and they control the market. Whatever the reason, this crazy kind of pricing non-policy is definitely putting people off. I find it a shame, but if it really is NeXT's idea to cut down on demand, then it is working. >BTW: A slab 8/105 costs 10.800 DM, which is about 6500 US$. A i486 WITH >interactive or SCO costs about the same. (But you wouldn't have the >other software ;-) - anyhow, many students I know would prefer a NeXT, >but they are ending up with a sun or a 386/486.) Please, do NOT start >discussing about advantages and disadvantages of those systems, I'm just >telling how the situation is like. I second this, I know of the benefits the NeXT environment can bring (i'm typing on one at the moment) over a i3?6 or Sun. But in a world where it is common practice among _reputable_ computer manufacturers to offer edu. discounts, to hear from a company (or its representatives) the phrase "there are NO edu discounts with NeXT" [this is not a quote just a paraphrase] gives the impression that NeXT are only interested in Business customers, at least outside the USA. >For me, it is a matter of principle: I cannot see why I should support a >company that doesn't support students. For me, I am finding it hard to support a company which claims to have Education as one of its major markets and then quite obviously tries to, relatively speaking, ripp-off its foreign educational customers. Maybe i'm getting this all wrong and it is only the distributors who are doing the ripping off, but it is kind of a strange situation. Yours in confusion, Andy Hewett. -- -----------------------------------------------------+------------------------- Andy Hewett | FB-10 Informatik DOMAIN: Andy.Hewett@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de | Universitaet Oldenburg UUCP: hewett@uniol.uucp | Postfach 2503 ... uunet!unido!uniol!hewett | 2900 Oldenburg TEL: (0441) 7982990/1 | Germany -----------------------------------------------------+-------------------------