trainoff@sbphy.ucsb.edu (03/18/89)
NeXT has only been shipping for a couple of months now, so I don't expect any definitive answers to this question. Instead I will settle for knowing how much interest NeXT has generated in its target market. Firstly, how many Universities currently have signed a contract to sell NeXT boxes and how many are negotiating? Secondly, how many units have been ordered and how many have been shipped? Presumably the marketing types at NeXT have all sorts of figures about the anticipated demand. Are they close? (by that I mean, is their marketing stategy resonable?) I noticed an interesting comment in the Byte review (since I don't have it here I can only paraphrase). One of NeXT's marketing types said something about how the company was designed not to need big numbers to survive. What does this mean? How much profit margin do they have on these things anyway. When, in the current game plan are they planning to open up sales to commercial business. It is very clear that this is not for some time to come. Business people tend to be MUCH less tolerant of beta bugs (and boy are there alot of them!). Remember it takes more than a good product to survive in the workstation market. Anyone at NeXT care to comment? Along similar lines, I read the latest rumor that Sun has leaked about the machine they are planning to release. In this week's _InfoWorld_ there was a blurb. The salient facts (???) are that they will announce their "NeXT killer" on April 10. It is a RISC machine with 14 MIPS, priced (with a 100M hard disk) at < 10k$. Of course RISC MIPS != CISC MIPS. Does anyone know any more? BTW: My research group just bought the bullet and ordered two. I can hardly wait the two (three?) month delivery time. ..Steve ** ________ ** "...Steve" is a registered trademark of the Trainoff Corporation ________