Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!killer!vector!nobody From: bovine!john@apple.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: AT&T alleges dumping Message-ID: Date: 9 Jan 89 19:23:07 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 46 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 9, message 2 Mr. Kurtiak: I was somewhat surprised by your instant reply to my posting. Unfortunately I feel that your response was typical of the knee-jerk attitude that pervades the US manufacturing community. Having owned an equipment vending company for over five years (no longer; the market's too hoary) I can speak with some authority concerning the wares. Most US makers have been well behind the times in their technology. While AT&T was still trying to push the Dimension, ITT was selling their 3100 (great hardware, lousy software), Rolm was selling 1976 equipment in 1986, and Mitel was pushing their highly touted ANALOG SX series. Last night, Sony's chairman of the board on 60 Minutes said the that US firms would be better off to concern themselves with their product than with what goes on in the board rooms and take-overs. I couldn't agree more. "Dumping" is a convenient smoke screen that may be true to a small degree, but it has been proven over and over again that the American people will pay MORE for what they really want. Japanese cars cost more than their American counterparts and yet they still enjoy brisk sales. The same applies to telephone equipment. I have no axes to grind in this area. My truck is American (it filled my needs at the right price). My computer is an AT&T built right here in my home town. When it was first introduced the price tag was $7,000. When they finally lowered the price to $1,600, then it became competitive. Did they loose money at this price? I doubt it. Another aspect concerns quality of workmanship. You may have heard recently about the difficulties Seagate has been having financially. In the press it was revealed that 20% of the work force was let go. Seagate blamed, among other things, foreign competition for their declining market performance. I can tell you first hand what their trouble is. Out of 20 Seagate drives under my control in 1988, seven (7) of them failed. No further comment necessary. US manufacturers have the capability to technologically cream the world competition. It's the free thinking in the United States that has historically led to our once technical superiority. If we could return to that mentality rather than playing legal and board room games, we would once again control the market place. The other countries are well aware of this and are hoping we never wake up. -- John Higdon john@bovine ..sun!{apple|cohesive|pacbell}!zygot!bovine!john