From: spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu (Stefano Pagiola)
Subject: NeXT edu prices go UP!
Reply-To: spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 00:06:49 GMT

Aaargh!  What is NeXT doing?

After weeks of discussion of the need for cheaper machines, guess  
what?  The price here at Stanford for the cheapest available NeXT  
just went UP!

On the previous price list, the cheapest NeXT listed was the 8/250  
Turbo slab, which went for $3,851.  Not listed but also available  
(according to bookstore sales droids) was the non-turbo 8/105 slab  
for $3,400 (up $350 since its introduction).  Now the latest price  
list is out and the cheapest available NeXT is the 16/250 Turbo Slab  
for $4,483.  No, that is not a typo.  $4,483.  Edu. Granted that it  
has 8MB more RAM than the Turbo system on the previous list, that's a  
$632 increase.  $600 for 8MB RAM? Come on!  The 25MHz slab is  
apparently no longer available (someone please correct me; better  
yet, correct the bookstore).  The base prices for other systems are  
unchanged (except for changes in the 17" color monitor prices  
resulting from the switch to Sony), but that doesn't matter: what  
really hurts is the steep hike in the price of the cheapest system.

I give up.  I've been pushing NeXT on everybody who will listen.  I  
got my advisor to sell her MacIIci to get one.  But at $4,480 just to  
buy in, it has become a non-starter for everyone I know.  In fact, at  
that price, I could not have bought one.  Probably would not, either,  
even if I'd had the money.  Sure, the NeXT is a joy to work on, and  
I've often stated (and continue to state) that I would have to be  
paid money to go back to working on a DOS/Windows machine.  But at a  
price difference of about $2,000 between a 486-based system that does  
what I need (much worse than a NeXT could, to be sure) and the  
cheapest available NeXT, it _is_ a case of being paid money to stay  
with DOS/Windows.

No question that NeXT is the best computer around.  That it has the  
best OS and GUI.  That working on it is a joy rather than a chore.   
But at $4,480 a pop, few will be able to buy into the dream.

Now let's try to be constructive.  $4,483 buys what is definitely a  
usable user system.  No need to upgrade anything before using it; RAM  
is adequate, and so is HD space.  Truly a `works right out of the  
box' machine for everybody save developers.  I can understand NeXT  
wanting their lowest-priced system not to have any sacrifices;  
memories of the overpriced, underpowered original cube still haunt  
them.

But while NeXT have certainly addressed the under-powered side, they  
have done very little for the `over-priced' side.  Two years ago,  
$3,150 for an 8/105 slab was a great bargain.  Right now, $4,480 for  
a 16/250 Turbo Slab is ok but no great shakes, since at that price  
you don't get color, you don't get expandability, and you don't get  
upgradability (not even to color, and see the ADB fiasco for clues  
about future component upgradability).  And since bundled user  
softare (as opposed to development software) has been progressively  
reduced, one can't easily argue any more that system price  
comparisons are misleading.  And things like the current Appletalk  
bugs, with no news of when/if fixes might become available, make it  
risky to cite many 3.0 features as `added value.'

Moreover, the current price structure provides no way to gradually  
move into the NeXT world.  I worked for 6 months on an 8/105 slab  
before adding a 200MB external.  Another 6 before increasing my RAM  
to 20MB.  Before each of these upgrades, I did not think `what a  
loser of a system.'  I thought `Wow! and think how much better it  
would be if I added more RAM.'  As my needs developed, I added what  
was needed to keep up.  My initial cost was low, and incremental  
costs reasonable.  Altogether, my current 20/300 non-turbo slab cost  
me less than $4,000 and almost $1,000 of that was spread over one  
year.  Far less than the entry price for a 16/250 turbo slab.  I can  
live with the small 25/33MHz performance difference given that a  
system that costs $500 less gives me slightly more RAM and HD space.   
Now NeXT no longer offers that avenue.  Either I have $4,480 right  
now, or I don't do anything.

NeXT needs a low-cost, entry-level system.  With reasonable 486-based  
systems in the $2,000 price range on the street and with NT on the  
horizon, why abandon your current software base to move to a system  
with such a small installed base, no matter how fancy?  And even if  
you want to, how can you do so at such entry level prices?

The 25MHz slab makes an excellent entry-level system.  If an 8/105  
25MHz system could be sold for $3,150 two year ago, the same system  
should be sellable for considerably less now.  If NeXT can't do this  
but every other manufacturer on the planet can, then something is  
seriously wrong with NeXT.  Alternatively, hike RAM to 16MB and HD to  
about 200MB (giving a perfectly good user system straight out of the  
box) and keep its price at about $3,000.  At that price, the added  
advantages of NeXT far outweigh the only slightly higher cost.  If  
NeXT really can't provide RAM and HDs for less, sell a completely  
RAM-less and HD-less station and let users add their own.  I can find  
8MB for $200, so NeXT supplying it to me for $600 is hardly a  
bargain.  (Under this scenario, perhaps a way could be arranged for   
users to get NS pre-installed on HDs that they buy from NeXT-friendly  
vendors like Tecor.)

Bottom line?  At current entry-level prices, I dare no longer  
recommend NeXT to anybody.  Its a great machine, but suggesting to  
people they spend $4,480 for a mono system is simply going to  
perpetuate the image of NeXT as producing vastly over-priced,  
gold-plated systems that are not meant for real people.  Even at the  
previous $3,850, people would literally laugh at me when I quoted  
that price for a monochrome system.

As Steve Jobs said at NW Expo, its not enough to be twice as good.   
NeXT seems to be determined to prove him right.

--
-
Stefano Pagiola
Food Research Institute, Stanford University
spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)
spagiola@fri-nxt-pagiola.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)