graham%ee.surrey.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk (Graham J Carpenter) (02/28/89)
>we've been stalling our impending purchases of more workstations... the >3/50 is just too wimpy. my guess is that Sun will announce some 68030 >based systems... the 3/50 seems to be on the way out, at least... i'd >welcome speculation from any readers on what is to come... Why put up with speculation? If you can convince your Sun salesman that you really need the info now to make purchasing decisions he will usually be happy to organise a presentation of soon to be announced products under a non-disclosure agreement. The guy who our salesman brought along last week to do the presentation here is doing about 7 presentations a week at the moment. >also -- i've >heard about an April announcement... it would be fabulous if they would >announce swift new stuff in February, as well. i doubt i can hold out >until April. There are product announcements due in April, but nothing before then as far as I know. Graham Carpenter - graham@ee.surrey.ac.uk Dept of Electronic and Electrical Engineering University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH.
scs@itivax.iti.org (Steve C. Simmons) (02/28/89)
eli@ursa-major.spdcc.com (Steve Elias) writes: >we've been stalling our impending purchases of more workstations... >heard about an April announcement... it would be fabulous if they would >announce swift new stuff in February, as well. Chuckle. Your note is a good reason why computer manufacturers try to keep down the long-term announcements. If Sun announced a $4000 68030 workstation today for delivery in June, what would happen to 3/50 and 3/60 sales? Down the toilet, that's what. Note that long preannouncements were a major contributor to Kaypro's downfall. Long pre-announcements are also very risky to ones credibility. If you announce a machine 6 months before scheduled delivery from development, you have a high risk of being late. If you announce one month, you're pretty safe. How would you feel putting off your Feb purchases for a July machine that doesn't materialize until December? More or less p-o'ed than buying in Feb and seeing the announcement in November? in June? There's no perfect answer, only hard choices. Finally, long pre-announcements are a classic IBM technique to keep users hanging onto one vendor. By promising the moon next year, many buyers hang onto their existing equipment rather than switch to a competitor. Is this good or bad? IBM gets flamed and sometimes even sued by customers and competitors over doing this. Steve Simmons scs@vax3.iti.org Industrial Technology Institute Ann Arbor, MI.
chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano) (02/28/89)
eli@ursa-major.spdcc.com (Steve Elias) writes: > my guess is that Sun will announce some 68030 based systems... I have seen some things posted in sun-spots about upcoming products, and am somewhat concerned. I know the answers to Mr. Elias' questions, but can't say, because I am bound by a non-disclosure agreement. The information pre- viously posted was also bound by this agreement. Don't people realize that Sun is doing its customers a courtesy by participating in pre-release disclosure of information? If people keep violating the spirit of the agreement, Sun will begin to restrict the number of people privy to advance information. We use the information to plan our purchases and advise in-house users, and I would hate to be excluded in the future. I understand how great the desire is to know what is coming, but people should really abide by the non-disclosure agreements, or not participate at all. Chuck Musciano Advanced Technology Department Harris Corporation (407) 727-6131 ARPA: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com
ralph@laas.laas.fr (Ralph P. Sobek) (03/23/89)
chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano) writes: > eli@ursa-major.spdcc.com (Steve Elias) writes: > > > my guess is that Sun will announce some 68030 based systems... > > I have seen some things posted in sun-spots about upcoming products, and > am somewhat concerned. I know the answers to Mr. Elias' questions, but > can't say, because I am bound by a non-disclosure agreement. The > information pre- viously posted was also bound by this agreement. I have not yet seen anything posted that should have been bound by a non-disclosure agreement. People have only been reiterating (from different sources maybe :-)) what was announced last year by Steve Grandi's "SUG trip report" posting. So, what was so awful? Evidently, I do not wish to incite people to divulge confidential information. Ralph P. Sobek Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own. ralph@laas.laas.fr Addresses are ordered by importance. ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!mcvax!laas!ralph If all else fails, try: SOBEK@FRMOP11.BITNET sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU [[ I think the biggest concern was over the message sent in by David Kovar. It even included internal product names---something that was certainly not mentioned in Mr. Grandi's trip report, but something that those covered by a non-disclosure agreement would likely be privvy to. His message was also very specific about MIPS ratings and prices. I suspect that someone (*not* Mr. Kovar) told someone else in violation of the agreement, who then told someone else, etc., until someone in the chain asked Mr. Kovar if it was true. He naturally went to the net for confirmation. --wnl ]]