zimmer@calvin.stanford.edu (Andrew Zimmerman) (04/06/91)
We're No. 2 -- really Next's claim will be news to H-P, IBM, Digital By Lee Gomes Mercury News Staff Writer And the nation's No.2 professional work-station vendor is ... Next Inc.? That's the eye-popping claim Steve Jobs is mak- ing for his beleaguered computer company, based on a rather selective release of sales figures from the Redwood City firm. Anxious to keep the world from writing off Next altogether because of its slow start, Jobs told reporters Thursday that Next sold 8,000 machines in the first three months of the year. And, that he said, makes the company the second-biggest sup- plier, after Sun Microsystems Inc, in the previous- ly unknown category of "professional work sta- tions." Such machines, the company said, are "unlike traditional scientific/technical work stations", and are instead "designed for non-technical users." Most estimates of the work-station market have Sun out in front, followed by such giants as Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment, and IBM. Sun shipped 44,000 machines in the last quarter of 1990 -- though Next maintained that only 11,000 of them were "professional work stations." "And what were the other machines we shipped?" wondered Kim Miller, a Sun spokes- woman. When Next announced two new models in Sep- tember, it said that, based on months of sales work, it had orders for 15,000 machines. It began produc- ing the new models in November and shipped 1,500 before year's end. Of the 8,000 machines it shipped from January to March, up to 40 percent were simply filling orders from the 15,000 announced last year, said Todd Rulon-Miller, Next's director of sales. So did last quarter's sales represent a genuine breakthrough for Next, or were they simply filling an existing backlog? Rulon-Miller insisted the quarter was the start of something big, but declined to release any other sales figures -- such as current bookings or actual manufacturing projections -- to bolster that case. "We're a private company," he said. (End of article.) Andrew zimmer@calvin.stanford.edu
hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) (04/06/91)
Here is the Ascii version of the official eXT release; hope Conrad_Geiger doesn't mind my reposting it: Return-Path: Conrad_Geiger@NeXT.COM Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 07:55:53 PST From: Conrad_Geiger@NeXT.COM Received: by NeXT Mailer (1.62) To: nug@cpac.washington.edu Subject: NeXT SHIPS 8,000 CPUs IN FIRST QUARTER -ascii version - User group leaders, Sorry for the NeXT mail yesterday. I know that some of you can only read ascii. So here is the ascii version... conrad NeXT SHIPS 8,000 CPUs IN FIRST QUARTER Makes NeXT One of Leading Professional Workstation Vendors REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 4, 1991 NeXT Computer, Inc. today announced that it shipped 8,000 NeXT CPUs during the first quarter of 1991, which ended March 31. It was NeXT's first full quarter shipping its new line of workstations. All of NeXT's shipments were into the professional workstation category, making NeXT one of the leading vendors in this segment. Professional workstations, unlike traditional scientific/technical workstations, are UNIX workstations designed for non-technical users. "In our first full quarter shipping the new systems, we think NeXT has nearly matched market leader Sun in shipments to the professional workstation segment," said Steven P. Jobs, president and CEO of NeXT. "Customers are beginning to grasp the benefits of NeXT's concept of 'UNIX for mere mortals' and they like what they see." Comparing NeXT's first quarter 1991 with other vendors' most recently reported sales, NeXT tied with Digital Equipment Corporation in the overall workstation market. In the professional workstation category, NeXT ran a close second to market leader Sun Microsystems. Sixty percent of NeXT's sales were to customers in business and government and 40 percent were to universities. More than 30 percent of NeXT's 8,000 CPUs were sold internationally to customers in Europe and Asia. NeXT coordinates its European activities through its three subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. In Asia, Canon, Inc. is the company's exclusive representative. Professional Workstations Professional workstations represent a rapidly emerging new category of UNIX workstations. Professional workstation users require the power, networking and multitasking capabilities of UNIX workstations, but also need a computer that runs personal computer-like productivity applications and is easy to use. These users work in areas such as publishing, financial services, entertainment/advertising, medical and legal services, government and higher education. Customers in non-technical fields generally purchase workstations rather than personal computers for three reasons: to develop mission-critical custom applications; to run networking-intensive installations; and to run more powerful versions of productivity applications than are available for personal computers. In time, NeXT believes, they will also demand greater interpersonal computing capabilities to increase group productivity and collaboration. NeXT computers have the technology that commercial users are seeking as they migrate to workstation technology. NeXTstep, NeXT's graphical user interface and application development environment, offers the most powerful and easiest to use environment for custom application development. NeXT's systems also provide extremely powerful built-in networking capabilities including TCP/IP and both twisted-pair and thin Ethernet yet setting up and navigating around a network on NeXT is extremely simple. Unlike other workstation vendors, NeXT has a wide assortment of breakthrough productivity applications, such as Lotus Improv and WordPerfect (both shipping now). These applications are superior in functionality to, but compatible with, their versions on other platforms. They also have the ability to read files by other spreadsheet and word processing vendors, thus making them compatible with 80 percent of the installed base of software. Lastly, NeXT is the only computer company focusing on interpersonal computing, with built-in, easy-to-use electronic mail that allows everyone in an organization to use voice, text and graphics to keep each other informed. NeXT's family of professional workstations comprises the NeXTstation and NeXTcube, which began shipping in November 1990; NeXTstation Color, which began shipping on March 12; and NeXTdimension, due to be available to customers in May. NeXT's first quarter shipment numbers do not include the two color products. All four systems are based on Motorola's 68040 microprocessor. Distribution One of NeXT's challenges in 1991 is to structure its distribution strategy to match the quality of its products. In the first stage of this program, NeXT is rapidly expanding its dealer base in the U.S., putting greater emphasis on campus resellers in the higher education community, forging partnerships with more value-added resellers (VARs) and increasing its direct sales force. "Along with building credibility for an entirely new category of computers professional workstations NeXT has also had to take a fresh look at the right distribution strategies to reach professional workstation customers," said Todd Rulon-Miller, NeXT's vice president, sales. " Our distribution goals are two-fold: to expand our total distribution capabilities and to choose channels that give us greater leverage with customers. The changes we've initiated in 1991 take us a long way toward accomplishing these goals." To reach individuals and small- and medium-sized businesses, NeXT is establishing a network of independent dealers that are aggressive, technically savvy, owner-operated retailers with strong regional reputations. Included in this group will be individually certified Businessland centers, chosen on a case-by-case basis according to their track record selling NeXT's professional workstation products. NeXT expects that these Businessland centers will make up about 10 percent of its total dealer base. NeXT's VAR strategy focuses on specific vertical markets that depend on proprietary custom software, and for which NeXT is particularly well suited, including publishing, financial services, entertainment/advertising, medical and legal services. Historically, more than half of all workstations have been sold through VARs. To increase its leverage among higher education customers P which account for 40 percent of NeXT's total sales worldwide P NeXT is concentrating more effort on campus resellers (i.e., bookstores and on-campus computer stores). The company is focusing on establishing key resellers at computer-intensive colleges and universities, which are responsible for about half of all higher education computer purchases. Many large corporate customers, as well as many government organizations and higher education institutions, prefer to purchase computers directly from vendors instead of through intermediate channels. NeXT has doubled its direct sales force in the last six months to better serve these customers. NeXT Computer, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets professional workstations, which combine the power and networking of today's most advanced workstations with the ease of use and productivity applications of today's best personal computers. NeXT's professional workstation systems promise to enhance the way groups of people work together in the 1990s. NeXT is headquartered at 900 Chesapeake Drive, Redwood City, California, 94063. Hardy -------****------- Meinhard E. Mayer (Prof.) Department of Physics, University of California Irvine CA 92717;(714) 856 5543; hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu or MMAYER@UCI.BITNET