Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!spool.mu.edu!agate!mindseye!izumi From: izumi@mindseye.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Nemacs and NeXT -- Insane pricing of 2.1J OS Summary: Steve, please do something before it's too late. Message-ID: <1991Jun25.084107.15985@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 25 Jun 91 08:41:07 GMT Article-I.D.: agate.1991Jun25.084107.15985 References: <2422@solvalou.mech.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator) Organization: Univ. of California, Berkeley Lines: 40 In article <2422@solvalou.mech.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp> mizo@helmine (Hideo Mizoguchi) writes: > >I phoned Canon and asked about this Japanese OS but I was told that you can buy >OS 2.0J for JPY 60,000 *IF YOU HAVE BOUGHT YOUR CUBE THROUGH CANON*. If not, >you'll have to pay JPY360,000. Yes, it's about $2,500. What kind of INSANE pricing is that? That's 80% of EDU price for a NeXTstation. Are they also trying to sell 2.1J to us in the US and the rest of the world at THAT price, or are they intimidating Japanese users and "parallel importers" who might try to get machines from the US directly instead of through Canon? Either case, Steve, please stop this insanity, before the rumer spreads that NeXT's Kanji system is nice but costs as much as the machine itself. Canon's attitude that the Japanese OS is just for the Japanese market is sad and unfortunate in this age. There are a lot of Japanese all over the world. There are also probably just as many non-native Japanese speakers who want to use NeXT for their work and study. We couldn't have bought a NeXT machine from Canon even if we wanted to. Then, aren't we entitled to 2.1J at the same price as users in Japan get? This is just plain stupid. There really should be just ONE NeXT OS for the entire world just as the NeXT machine can plug into the outlet anywhere in the world. 2.1J should be that OS (of course uninterested users can opt not to install Japanese fonts to save disk space.). Izumi Ohzawa [ 大澤五住 ] USMail: University of California, 360 Minor Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 Telephone: (415) 642-6440 Fax: (415) 642-3323 Internet: izumi@violet.berkeley.edu NeXTmail: izumi@pinoko.berkeley.edu