From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: Preferential Treatment for Education...???
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 14:21:54 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.021506.10435@cs.aukuni.ac.nz> JWilliams wrote:
>
>How the hell do you expect them to sell their computers without "actively
>encouraging" buyers? I think that this is what they should try harder to do,
>not less hard.

Generally speaking, I would agree with you. However, Acorn did a major
mailshot, making this offer to educational buyers. The whole emphasis
of the offer was that Acorn wants to offer preferential treatment to its
valued educational customers. The offer lasted for two months, and then
the A3000 was apparently immediately withdrawn from sale.

A posting on <comp.sys.acorn> suggested that the A3000 will continue to be
sold - I cannot see how this will be true, unless another shipment of A3000s
has arrived in this country, and needs to be disposed of. 

Hugh Symons Distribution Group report that they are out of stock of A3000s,
and will not be receiving any more.

>>If that doesn't mean it is discontinued, what does?
>
>I would say a press release from Acorn saying "We have discontinued production
>of the A3000" would be the only sure fire way of knowing.

Acorn will not make any such statement until the new machines become
*official* public knowledge. I reckon that a statement from their sole
distributor is the next best thing.

Simon.








>
>Sure, it's nasty and horrible that Acorn have to try to sell off their last
>A3000 stocks with a special deal before the new better faster cheaper
>machine appears, but this is NORMAL in any industry with any amount of
>technological improvement. At some point, the old becomes outdated, and the
>new becomes cheaper than the old. Acorn is a BUSINESS, and have to keep
>making a profit if they can.
>
>Also, if people are stupid enough to say "OOOH Look! Acorn is dangling a
>carrot in front of me" and then buy the machine, then you can't blame it
>ALL on Acorn. You have to expect that Acorn are always within a year of a new
>release, and you could keep waiting for the next machine... and the next one...
>but at some point you will have to take the plunge and buy.
>
>I chose not to buy the A5000 a year ago, because it seemed to have been
>prematurely released (hardware slightly shaky, RISC OS buggy as hell), so
>I thought I'd wait until "Early 1992" until RISC OS 3.1 was released and
>see... Now, I'm waiting until September or October to see if there is
>going to be a machine I would prefer to the A5000 (I like the A4, except that
>in NZ the price difference between it and the 5000 is large, and the LCD
>display has very very nasty ghosting problems, so I'll probably get a 5000..
>
>However, in a couple of months I *will* buy a machine, and I will probably
>end up less than 6 months later, regretting that I won't be able to get
>the new 60Mip 24-bit 32MB $500 machine... But I'll buy because I need a
>machine *now*, and the one I am buying now is good enough to make me happy
>now. In 6 months it will only be worth half what I paid for it, but that's
>life, and has nothing to do with Acorn policy.
>-- 
>_________________  "I'd like to answer this question in two ways:
>  /____ _ _/_ __       First in my normal voice, and then
> // / //_//_ /_/       in a silly, high-pitched whine." (Monty Python)