🚀 go-pugleaf

Note: cross-posting to comp.sys.next.misc and comp.sys.next.advocacy.
Original from comp.sys.next.misc.
In article <1992Dec27.015305.27995@leland.Stanford.EDU> underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:
> [stuff deleted]
>I just read the status of Next, Inc. in the latest issue of the
>Economist.  The line in the 1st paragraph reads, approximately,
>
>         "Next, Inc. has yet to turn a profit".

It would be interesting to see NeXT's books.

>At the end of the article, it notes that a high-ranked official had
>jumped ship and moved to Sun Microsystems.  Mr. Job laments that
>Sun may yet crush the daylights out of his company.

I'm not quite sure if NeXT should go public.  It would certainly
raise my confidence in the company.  The big bankroll from Canon did
nothing for my confidence.

>So, if Mr. Jobs is reading this, I wish him well and again offer the same
>advice.  Keep R & D in the USA but move _all_ manufacturing facilities
>to Thailand.  For crying out loud, use the Matsushita-designed 64-bit
>SPARC chip.  So, what do you care if people laugh because you chose
>the SPARC chip?  You will earn enough money to _burn_.

I'm not particular about the processor, but the '040 has got to go.
The turbo was a real yawn of an announcement.  The R4000, Sparc Viking,
PA-RISC, and others are incredibly fast.  The microSparc certainly has
some impressive price/performance numbers.  Any of these would make
me happy.

The foreign manufacturing may or may not solve the money problems.
If quality control can be maintained, NeXT wouldn't lose on the warranty.
This would be a plus.  On the other hand, the 'buy American' theme may hurt
US sales.  Tough call.

Given the vast array of Unix OS's around (Solaris, AIX, IRIX, RISCos, UTS,
and so on), it would be nice to see a truly unified OS running on multiple
platforms.  This could be quite profitable for NeXT, if they can round up
enough programming man-hours to do the ports.  Of course, a couple of
additions to NextStep would help: POSIX & C2 or B1 security, for example.

Out on a limb for 1993:
1)	NeXT sales will slump. Without new hardware, NeXT could very well be
	crushed by Sun.
2)	NextStep 486 won't sell due to its high pricetag.  I don't think
	Solaris for 486 will fare too well, either.
3)	Don't expect timely upgrades for some of your favorite software.
	Vendors will be taking a second look at NeXT.
4)	If new NeXT hardware is announced, we'll probably be disappointed
	by the (lack of) upgrade paths.  However, it could bring NeXT
	up to the performance levels of its competition (whoever that is).
5)	If there is a NS 3.1, it will make a lot of people happy, and
	I'll probably even upgrade.

As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of the NeXT hardware. So if it
went away, I'll live.  I'd just like to see the NeXT software
mature and develop into a multi-platform OS for the mid-90's.

Standard disclaimers apply.
///////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
  Steve Johnson                         E-mail: Steve.Johnson@math.tamu.edu
  Unix Systems Manager                  Phone: (409) 845-0906
  Dept of Mathematics                   FAX:   (409) 845-6028
  Texas A&M University
  College Station, TX 77843-3368
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////////

In article <1992Dec27.015305.27995@leland.Stanford.EDU>  
underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:

> I just read the status of Next, Inc. in the latest issue of the
> Economist.  The line in the 1st paragraph reads, approximately,
> 
>          "Next, Inc. has yet to turn a profit".
> 
> At the end of the article, it notes that a high-ranked official had
> jumped ship and moved to Sun Microsystems.  Mr. Job laments that
> Sun may yet crush the daylights out of his company.

1. NeXT is a privately held company and has not released any financial
information.  Anything you read is pure speculation.

2. The "high-ranked official" that left NeXT left after a vote of
"no confidence" by his group members.

3. Sun has been losing some *tasty* sales to NeXT ;-)

4. We dig this fluff in comp.sys.next.advocacy, so let's move
this budding flame-fest over there!

--
Nathan Janette
PPP link from hilbert.csb.yale.edu

Please reply to: nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu (NeXT)

In article <1992Dec27.015305.27995@leland.Stanford.EDU>  
underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:
> Hi everyone.
> 
> This is my "anniversary" post since about 1 year ago, I posted an
> article pointing out that Mr. Job's announcement of a public stock
> offering was really an attempt to raise the value of the stock so that
> those with a vested interest could unload all their (eventually
> worthless) stock.  I also pointed out that if Mr. Jobs were smart,
> he would switch the central processor in upcoming Next machines to
> a SPARC chip and would switch manufacturing facilities to someplace
> like Thailand.  (By "smart", I mean, "wanting a company that is
> profitable.)
> 

Somehow I doubt that your predictions will ever be taken seriously. If you  
really knew so much, you would have your own multi-million dollar company and  
you would be charging for advice.

> Well, I was laughed off this place.  True, I did err about the stock
> announcement; Mr. Jobs did announce that the company _would_ go public
> but _had_ not yet gone public at the time.  (I erroneously thought that
> he had already gone public.)  Several people pointed out--huffy and puffy
> --that Next was doing fabulously well and should not switch to a SPARC
> chip and that moving manufacturing facilities to Thailand wouldn't
> help a bit.
> 

Thailand wouldn't help a bit. NeXT would merely get stuck with the image of  
child-prostitution promoters. And look at the current round of protectionism  
rising in the States. NeXT would be crushed by tariffs if it manufactured in  
Thailand. It's better off staying where it is or moving to Canada or Mexico  
(NAFTA makes the two attractive).

> Think again.

I just did. It still doesn't make sense to sell the factory (at a loss) and  
move offshore (especially Thailand).
 
> I just read the status of Next, Inc. in the latest issue of the
> Economist.  The line in the 1st paragraph reads, approximately,
> 
>          "Next, Inc. has yet to turn a profit".
> 

Since NeXT is a privately owned company, it doesn't have to release numbers to  
anyone. I wonder where the Economist got its facts?

> At the end of the article, it notes that a high-ranked official had
> jumped ship and moved to Sun Microsystems.  Mr. Job laments that
> Sun may yet crush the daylights out of his company.
> 
So Bud Tribble left. Big deal. We all know about it. If you read the newsgroups  
more often than once a year, you would realize this is old news. Your once a  
year posting means you miss most of the news generated over the year.

> So, if Mr. Jobs is reading this, I wish him well and again offer the same
> advice.  Keep R & D in the USA but move _all_ manufacturing facilities
> to Thailand.  For crying out loud, use the Matsushita-designed 64-bit
> SPARC chip.  So, what do you care if people laugh because you chose
> the SPARC chip?  You will earn enough money to _burn_.

I still don't get it. NeXT hires professionals whose sole purpose is to make  
sure NeXT isn't wasting money. Along comes some nobody with free advice. Should  
Steve:

a) listen to trained professionals
b) listen to some nobody
c) none of the above.

Terry Wilcox
-- 
Terry Wilcox		| 'Next to the originator of a good sentence 
terry@squid9.cuc.ab.ca	| is the first quoter of it.'
NeXTmail welcome	|  - RALPH WALDO EMERSON