Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!hsi!stpstn!aad
From: aad@stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Screwing Little Guys
Message-ID: <3084@stpstn.UUCP>
Date: 17 Mar 89 11:43:11 GMT
References: <79700022@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: aad@stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri)
Organization: The Stepstone Corporation, Sandy Hook, CT
Lines: 31

In article <79700022@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes:

>Why can't computer companies introduce new models only in the fall,
>like the auto industry?  It makes a whole h*ll of a lot more sense
>than the current arrangement.

>People get screwed all the time (I'm thinking about Apple customers)

In the car industry, there usually isn't much difference between a 19xy
and a 19xy+1 car, and it seems to me like the introductions are spread
all over the year, perhaps with a concentration in the latter half.

In the computer industry, a given peice of hardware is obsolete as soon
as you get it.  I've got Sun 2's here dated 1986 that I get all kinds of
stupid "junk" comments about.  When a vendor announces a new peice, the
saleability of the previous model goes way down.  What they often do is
clear out their warehouses and *then* announce.  I knew someone at CMU
who bought a PC Jr. two weeks before it was discontinued.

An exception, of course is hardware that matches "IBM.*System.*".  People
who buy those will buy whatever IBM tells them to.

Apple has created a strange situation, though, with the pricing and nature
of their current product line.


-- 
@disclaimer(Any concepts or opinions above are entirely mine, not those of my
	    employer, my GIGI, my VT05, or my 11/34)
beak is@>beak is not
Anthony A. Datri @SysAdmin(Stepstone Corporation) aad@stepstone.com stpstn!aad