lyndon@nexus.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg) (10/24/88)
In article <1517@maccs.McMaster.CA>, dan@maccs (Dan Trottier) writes: > Plus it will add $50 dollars to the price of buying >software. Why? It seems that most software currently ships on QIC tapes. These go for around $50 (Canadian). The floptical costs C$65 according to everything I've read. Fifteen bucks isn't going to make a damn bit of difference in end user price. --
swilson%thetone@Sun.COM (Scott Wilson) (10/24/88)
In article <10508@ncc.Nexus.CA> lyndon@nexus.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg) writes: >In article <1517@maccs.McMaster.CA>, dan@maccs (Dan Trottier) writes: >> Plus it will add $50 dollars to the price of buying >>software. > >Why? It seems that most software currently ships on QIC tapes. These >go for around $50 (Canadian). The floptical costs C$65 according to >everything I've read. Fifteen bucks isn't going to make a damn bit >of difference in end user price. Maybe the way to look at it is "how many $6500 machines distribute software on $50 medium." To say that "most" software currently ships on QIC tapes is just false unless were talking about workstations only. Certainly software for Macs and PC's ship in much greater numbers on floppies than does software for workstations on QIC tape. My personal experience is that QIC tapes are always associated with work (i.e., people with money to spend who don't really care about buying 1/4" tapes) and floppies with home computer use. If NeXT is targeted for poorer computer users than $50 certainly is significant. I've purchased Mac software that sold for only $65, there's no way this could be sold if it had to come on $50 medium. -- Scott Wilson arpa: swilson@sun.com Sun Microsystems uucp: ...!sun!swilson Mt. View, CA
lyndon@nexus.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg) (10/25/88)
In article <74239@sun.uucp>, swilson%thetone (Scott Wilson) writes: >Maybe the way to look at it is "how many $6500 machines distribute >software on $50 medium." To say that "most" software currently ships >on QIC tapes is just false unless were talking about workstations >only. Sorry, I thought it would be clear from the context of my reply; Yes, I am addressing the workstation market. Just to prove a point, I see Sun charges the same price for QIC and half inch tape distributions of SunOS, even though the "cost" of half inch tape is roughly half that of QIC (based on SunOS 3.5 which was 4? QIC and 3? 1/2 in.) My point is the media costs tend to get buried in overall "handling" charge (e.g. FrameMaker charges CAN$150 for "media" when shipping a single QIC tape). [ This has nothing to do with comp.arch. Follow-ups to comp.misc. ] --lyndon --