sfrank@orion.oac.uci.edu (Steven Frank) (09/28/90)
The educational price for an Optical Disk is $149. This is the same as the list price, apparently. This looks like a bad sign for OD users (me). Are there any 3rd party distribution channels that would be cheaper?
mcguire@cs.tamu.edu (Tim McGuire) (09/28/90)
sfrank@orion.oac.uci.edu (Steven Frank) writes: >The educational price for an Optical Disk is $149. This is the same >as the list price, apparently. This looks like a bad sign for >OD users (me). Are there any 3rd party distribution channels >that would be cheaper? I really doubt that you're going to find the optical disks much cheaper than that for a while. The nice folks from NeXT didn't say this exactly, but I gathered that Canon hasn't been developing further markets for the OD that would increase the production and lower the price. I further suspect that this is the major (and perhaps the only) reason you aren't seeing some sort of optical technology on the new cubes/slabs. Tim McGuire mcguire@cs.tamu.edu
asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) (09/29/90)
In <8619@helios.TAMU.EDU> mcguire@cs.tamu.edu (Tim McGuire) writes: >I really doubt that you're going to find the optical disks much cheaper >than that for a while. The nice folks from NeXT didn't say this exactly, >but I gathered that Canon hasn't been developing further markets for the >OD that would increase the production and lower the price. I further suspect >that this is the major (and perhaps the only) reason you aren't seeing some >sort of optical technology on the new cubes/slabs. Actually, from talking to one of the reps, NeXT decided to go for working on speed, and having fast harddrives. The OD will still be supported and sold, but they are going to let it go more of the way of third party, and let them handle it. For instance, Iomega has a new drive called Lasersafe that is 610MB MO, and is a SCSI device. So if you want OD power, ya can look at that. It's pricier than the Canon, but it's also faster (from what I understand) and at 610MB, a tad bit better storage size, no? It's also uses the ISO standard (whatever one that is). The NeXT guy also said that Sony was doing the best with OD technology, but that wasn't on the market, or something (I forget, maybe it was too pricey). Anyways, I'd personally wait for a standard to emerge, then you'll be able to move HUGE quantities of data from machine to machine. Of course, waiting for a standard might be equivalent to waiting for a snow ball fight in hell.
roy@prism.gatech.EDU (Roy Mongiovi) (09/29/90)
It isn't a question of waiting for an OD standard or obtaining a faster
optical drive. I already own one of the original NeXT machines. When I
bought the machine OD's were $50 and they said that the price would go
down as they started producing them in larger volume.
Now they've TRIPLED the price of blanks disks. Should I not feel shafted?
--
Roy J. Mongiovi Systems Support Specialist Office of Computing Services
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0275 (404) 894-4660
uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!roy
ARPA: roy@prism.gatech.eduasd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) (09/29/90)
In <14253@hydra.gatech.EDU> roy@prism.gatech.EDU (Roy Mongiovi) writes: >It isn't a question of waiting for an OD standard or obtaining a faster >optical drive. I already own one of the original NeXT machines. When I >bought the machine OD's were $50 and they said that the price would go >down as they started producing them in larger volume. >Now they've TRIPLED the price of blanks disks. Should I not feel shafted? That's retail. Do you know what educational discounts will be? Probably not that much better, but it won't be as bad. Most likely Canon discovered that they weren't selling as many OD's as they thought (or NeXT promised) they would. If I was gonna get pissed at anybody, I'd get pissed at Canon for not getting the price down, and for them not getting a larger, faster drive out on the market, and market it to NeXT well. -k
phd_ivo@gsbacd.uchicago.edu (09/29/90)
In article <5646@mace.cc.purdue.edu>, asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) writes...
+If I was gonna get pissed at
+anybody, I'd get pissed at Canon for not getting the price down, and
+for them not getting a larger, faster drive out on the market, and
+market it to NeXT well.
..and for not making their drives sufficiently dust-tolerant. I have lost
enough data from ODs that I am thinking twice about ever using it again...
/ivo welch ivo@next.agsm.ucla.edu