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From: tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: Hyperprices for Hyperdrive support
Message-ID: <1312@ism780c.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Apr-86 22:53:04 EST
Article-I.D.: ism780c.1312
Posted: Wed Apr  2 22:53:04 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Apr-86 09:08:50 EST
References: <2008@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith)
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica, CA
Lines: 83

In an article bates@cfig1.DEC (Ken Bates) writes:
>
> I thought that this must have been a misprint, so I called GCC.
> No mistake, they want a cool $299 if you have your Mac upgraded
> to a Mac+.  This after paying $2,200 for the drive in the first
> place (and in addition to whatever the going price is for a Mac+
> conversion!).  I hate to think what will happen when the next
> release of the Finder comes out.  Will GCC want another few
> hundred so I can boot it?  Almost makes me afraid to use their
> backup utility.  Will the restore program demand money before I
> can recover files?

When a new release of the Finder comes out, it will probably not
require hardware changes to run!  The upgrade to Mac+
compatability for the Hyperdrive involves replacement of the
controller.  $300 is a reasonable price for a controller.

However, $89 seems unreasonable for the ROM only upgrade, but I don't
know anything about ROM prices.  Perhaps someone from GCC ( which is
on the net ) would be so kind as to explain?

> If I recall, the original Hyperdrive 20 cost around $2500.  If I
> had purchased one at that price, then the upgrade price of $300
> would bring the total to $2800.  On the other hand, I can go out
> and buy a brand new Hyperdrive 20 which works with the Mac+ for
> $1700 (according to a GCC spokesman I talked to).  How can this
> be?

My Mac started out as a 128k.  It is now a 512k.  Total cost of my
Mac ( purchase price + memory upgrade ) was $2100.  I could now buy
this for $1300.  A Mac+ upgrade would cost $900 ( $300 for disk/rom,
$600 for logic board ).  The total would be $3000.  I can buy a Mac+
for $2100.  How can this be?

Prices fall.  You should have *known* that when you bought your
Hyperdrive ( and when you bought your Mac ).  Think of the price
difference as what you pay to use the product while others are
waiting for the price to fall.

As for the upgrade cost, try looking at it this way:

        You have 1 512k Mac and a Hyperdrive, and you desire a
        Mac+ and a Hyperdrive+.

        There are two ways to do this.  You can pay the upgrade
        fees, which come to ~$1300.

        The other thing you could do is sell your Mac and Hyperdrive,
        and apply the money towards a Mac+ and a Hyperdrive.  A *new*
        512 Mac goes for about $1400, so if you get real lucky, you
        may get $1200.  A new Hyperdrive goes for around $1700, so
        $1500 would be a very good price to sell a used one for.
        This gives you $2700.  Now a Mac+ is going for around $2100
        and you said that a Mac+ compatable new Hyperdrive is $1700.
        That brings us to $3800.  We will forget about buying MacWrite
        and MacPaint for the Mac+.  We are $1100 short.

The difference between the two approaches is $200.  And this was assuming
some pretty good prices for your used equipment.  I would interpret this
as saying that the upgrade cost is not unreasonable.

[ I am not sure that the above actually means anything.  Is this a valid
  way of telling if an upgrade cost is "reasonable"? ]

Another way to look at it is to look at the parts you need.  To
have a Hyperdrive+, you need the disk, the controller, the roms,
the power supply and the fan.  GCC sells these together for about
$1700.  Prices for the consumer are about 4 times what it costs
the company, so maybe $1000 of the $1700 is the disk itself, and
the fan and power supply are probably about $300 when it gets to
the consumer.  Thus, the consumer cost of the controller and the
roms are about $400.  Since you already have the disk, fan, and
power supply, and upgrade cost of around $400 should be
reasonable.

> As new upgrades to the Mac come out, GCC will in all probability
> be back in your pocket demanding more money if you want to stay
> compatible.

So will Apple.  What do you think a fair price would be?
--

Tim Smith       sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim || ima!ism780!tim || ihnp4!cithep!tim