Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Wither Video Toaster?
Message-ID: <72318@sun.uucp>
Date: 10 Oct 88 19:52:26 GMT
References: <5380001@otter.hple.hp.com>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 35

In article <5380001@otter.hple.hp.com> (Lee Carter) writes:
> Okay, okay, I give up!  Does anyone have any information on when (if
> ever) the video toaster is going to be released. I saw blurb about this
> device almost a year ago and thought "Great!! sounds just what I need!"
> So, can anybody help with the latest rumours about price, release date,
> etc.

Next year maybe. NewTek made mistake #7 in the computer industry. For those
of you who are would-be entrepreneurs note this lesson now and don't make
yourself a victim of it. 

Simply stated, mistake #7 is : "Setting price and/or price-expectations 
before a product is in production." A lot of small companies are anxious
to get a product out the door as soon as possible. They are also eager 
to build up "presales" publicity to ensure both acceptance and quantiy
buying of their product. The mistake they make is when the product is
*almost* done, by saying something like "It will cost less than `n' dollars!"
or "For about the price of a <insert well known thing> you will be able
to buy this.", or the sin of all sins "It will cost $n." What happens to
these companies is that they get to the production stage and find that
if they sell their new product at the "promised" price they are either
not going to make any money or even lose money. So now they are in a 
double bind, they can either a) Not release the product and eat their
losses now, or b) Release the product at the higher price and make a lot
of people mad because they feel mislead. Or in the case of NewTek who
is suffering from the cost of DRAMs, delay the product and hope that the
price of RAM will come down to the levels they were when they announced
the price. 

It isn't a nice situation for anyone to be in. But now that you know
the risks, maybe you can keep it from happening to you.

--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.