esink@turia.dit.upm.es (04/05/91)
My initial reaction to the whole low end NeXT idea is : how much more low end can NeXT tolerate ? This is related to my next NeXT question, which is : Anybody have any educated guesses concerning the COST of the NeXTStation ? Add up the prices of the components. What kind of a profit margin are they making here ? It looks to me like a real small one. I was planning on posting my estimates, but I decided not to - given that I have not yet seen a Slab, nor do I have any idea what the cost of things like a DSP chip or UNIX licensing fees are. Could someone post a list of major components of the NeXTStation, and guess what the thing costs them to make ? Anyway, sure a Low End NeXT would be great. I want one for my home. I'm just not sure what they could cut out to make it cheaper. At home, I don't need the networking, but like someone else mentioned, it would probably be foolish for them to remove it. Less RAM ? Useless, RAM is cheap and the Slab barely has enough as it is. 68030 ? Like someone else said, how much less is that, really ? Smaller screen ? There's a possibility. Less software ? Sure, cut WriteNow (I would prefer that they did not, myself...), but what else is there that they could cut out ? Licensing fees on TeX, GCC, and Emacs ?!? Cheaper keyboard ? I doubt it. Cut their profit margin ? See above. Smaller disk ? Foolish. Cut the floppy ? More foolish. I don't think I've seen any reasonable suggestions which actually LOWER the price significantly. I'm not really complaining, because I don't have any better suggestions. I'm just not sure I see that a lowER end NeXT is all that feasible right now. Eric Eric W. Sink | Putting the phrase |All opinions Departamento de Telematica | "Frequently Asked" |are mine and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid| in your kill file is |not necessarily esink@turia.dit.upm.es | not recommended. |yours.
jchin@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca (Joseph Chin) (04/07/91)
If anyone want a low end UNIX box, they can go and get a 386/486 PC and run SCO or Interactive UNIX on it. But let's NOT compromise my lovely NeXT!!! By producing a low RAM, slow processor, non-Ethernet NeXT computer, you will be lowering the lowest common denominator for NeXT computers! PCs and (to a certain degree) Macs software have been plagued by hardware with low common denominators, lets spare our NeXT from that. The NeXTstation is a very reasonably priced entry-level system. It has and will hold its own in its target market. :-) Joe jchin@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca -- ************************************************************** * "Kill the body and the head will die" (Hunter S. Thompson) * * NeXT --> The ultimate electronic publishing platform! * ********** Joseph Chin --> jchin@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca *********
ed_l_patriquin@cup.portal.com (04/09/91)
Typical margins in the computer retail channel are ~45%, with few notable exceptions (the Mac Classic). That would mean that NeXT was making $2747 for each Slab (NeXTstation). NeXT would need to have a gross margin of at least 35% to be profitable, which would mean that the manufacturing cost, not the parts cost, of a Slab must be less than $1785 or they are losing money. Sounds like they are doing one heck of a job at cost reduction or they are losing money. Ed Patriquin