🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <wXJwLsy00Uka8226gj@andrew.cmu.edu>, bader+@andrew.cmu.edu (Miles Bader) writes:
> jim@eda.com (Jim Budler) writes:
> > of his promise 3 years ago was he would deliver a great workstation for
> > $5000 *retail*.

	first, what's this talk about a *PROMISE* ?!  it was a goal
	(at best) or hype (probably closer to the truth), and I still
	remember (and probably have it videotaped) when PBS was running
	an expose on Jobs and NeXT's beginnings in its series on Excellence.

	They filmed Steve at a retreat with the founding crew at NeXT,
	outlining his hopes/goals/plans for the new machine.  Steve wrote on
	a white glassboard the figure $3,000 as the target RETAIL-price.
	(you could have caught a 2-second clip of this on USA-Today on Wed.)
	Considering, that he wanted to come out with 3M-machine within
	2 years, it was so plainly absurd, it wasn't worth taking it serious.
	But rather than making a big deal out this, let's be glad that
	there is still someone out there that dedicates his life to make
	"another insanely great computer at the lowest price possible";
	if Steve Jobs wasn't doing it, who else is there?
	so what if it has turned out that it can't be done as cheaply
	as hoped for;  we should be glad that guys like Steve & Steve
	didn't get lured into the world of making gadgets for the military!
	....... and that Jobs risked a not inconsiderable part of his
	wealth to "push the envelope of computing further out."
 
> I don't think you're correct.  NeXT's stated market was, from the
> beginning, the university market (only).  Supposedly they've later
> indicated thoughts about expanding their target.

	Whereas many people were surprised how many Macintoshes could be
	sold on campus at ~2 grand+, it would really be foolish
	to bet the farm to sell enough ~7-grand computers there...
	so if NeXT can't develop an alternative market right from the start
	it is difficult to see where the capital shall come from to cover
	the red ink of doing business - no Apple-][ to pay the bills here !!

	fortunately, whereas you couldn't have sold a 128/512k Mac without
	a hard-disk or letter-quality printer to a businessman or professional,
	the NeXT machine has enough power to be useful to most anyone.
	so, given that they were smart enough not to try for another
	incompatible operating system, the NeXT-machine has a good chance
	to survive (a few years, at least) IFF the company can get into
	the black before it runs out of money ... I wish them well.

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