lavar@grlab.UUCP (LaVar Edwards) (09/01/89)
Can anyone explain the following pricing policies to me?
We recently purchased a HP9000/340M workstation with the following:
68030 16.67Mhz 68882 16.67Mhz
HP-IB interface RS-232 port
802.3/Ethernet LAN 17inch HighRes mono-monitor
Mouse Keyboard
HP-UX with AXE, PE, NS-ARPA, NFS, X11
4 Mbytes parity-checked RAM <-- *** Notice ***
The total price was $5,640 (list)
Now for the problem:
An additional 4 Mbytes parity-checked RAM is $5,000 ($4,250 if you purchase
the additional memory with the system)
A naive conclusion:
Does this mean that you should be able to purchase a 340 without memory
for $640?
--
LaVar Edwards
USPS: Graphicus UUCP: ...!hpubvwa!grlab!lavar
150 Lake St., Suite 206 VoicePh: USA (206) 828-4691
Kirkland, WA 98033 FAX: USA (206) 828-4236raveling@isi.edu (Paul Raveling) (09/06/89)
In article <240047@grlab.UUCP>, lavar@grlab.UUCP (LaVar Edwards) writes: > Can anyone explain the following pricing policies to me? > ... > We recently purchased a HP9000/340M workstation with the following: > ... > The total price was $5,640 (list) > ... > An additional 4 Mbytes parity-checked RAM is $5,000 ($4,250 if you purchase > the additional memory with the system) > ... > Does this mean that you should be able to purchase a 340 without memory > for $640? It sounds as if competition is leading workstation vendors to use a marketing approach that came into favor about a decade ago with low end (home) personal computers and video games: Sell the original system at a loss to capture customers, then make enough extra profit on accessories to survive. Just as every competitor in the games & home computer market had to do this to survive, and even then many didn't, it appears that competition in the workstation market is becoming much the same. Companies have a huge incentive to offer an easy path into their fold of customers, and I'll bet virtually all are selling at least some low end workstations at a loss. ---------------- Paul Raveling Raveling@isi.edu