From: jfr@RedBrick.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Re:   Scotty gets out his flame thrower over ADB
Date: 5 Nov 92 06:31:50 GMT
Organization: Red Brick Systems, Los Gatos, CA

In article <1992Nov3.120052.408@cubetech.com> andrew@cubetech.com writes:
>In article <dillon.0qoo@overload.Berkeley.CA.US> dillon@overload.Berkeley.CA.US (Matthew Dillon) writes:
>[munched stuff about 3rd party software for the NeXT]
>>    It's all well
>>    and nice to have dealers running ten thousand dollars worth of third
>>    party software on their NeXT's, but a consumer isn't about to spend ten
>>    thousand dollars above and beyond the $5K+ he's spending on the
>>    machine.  The modularity of the NeXT is admirable but it also causes
>>    fragmentation in the third party market... to 'complete' your machine
>>    you have to buy a dozen 'fragments' each costing a bundle of money.
>
>What planet are you from?  Name ONE.  Just ONE computer which sells as
>many or more machines than NeXT does each year for which the above is
>not true.  You don't think you have to lay out cash to get usuable
>software for Macintosh, Windows, HP or Sun or DEC or IBM or SGi
>workstations, or Amiga's, or Atari's, or anything because no software
>comes free with the machine??
>
>Yes you can get shareware, but it doesn't come with the computer, and
>shareware just doesn't jive well with big companies for some reason
>(remember who the majority of NeXT owners are now...).

  Calm down, Andrew, calm down!  Take a sedative or something :-)

  The problem with your argument is not that its untrue but that it
  fails to take into account the cost.  Of course no PC or Mac comes
  with much if any bundled software anymore.  But on PC you can buy
  tons of high-quality shrinkwrapped software that does lots of stuff
  that is unavailable on the NeXT except at very high cost.  Borland
  for instance sells a development environment for C++ and Object Pascal
  for under a $100 or maybe just a bit more (I haven't checked out
  PC prices in the past several months but it used to be $79 or so).
  And its pretty good, too.  Not Obj-C with IB and Appkit, by any means,
  but not bad.  Shrinkwrap apps are also available for low cost.  Even
  old standbys like 1-2-3 and Excel are available for under $250 these
  days from somewhere.  Windows apps are coming faster and furiouser,
  also at relatively low cost.  Lots of drawing and paint progs, plus
  word processors that are competitive.  And if you need Frame, there
  it is.  On the Mac, the situation is similar.  

  Of course the problem is that the market is still small on the NeXT
  so the price of software falls into the dilemma category.  I.e., "if
  I price my software too high, no one will buy it and the NeXT won't
  sell because there won't be enough software or it will be too expensive".
  "If I price my software too low, I will go broke and the NeXT won't
  sell because there won't be enough software period."  Damned if you
  do, damned if you don't.  Ultimately, it takes small companies with some
  guts and tenacity (and living in a dirt cheap cost-of-living location
  like Albuquerque probably doesn't hurt :-) to put good software out for
  a cheap price, endure the problems of piracy and low revenues for a
  few quarters or even years, until the market finally reaches critical
  mass and starts to take off.  Or until the market disappears and they
  all go broke :-(  Its risky business, no doubt, and a lot of people
  will disappear under the waves.  But that's life in the big city,
  folks.  People have short memories and forget that there wasn't cheap
  and readily available software for ANY of the machines mentioned above
  when they first came out.  Only when a few companies started providing
  it (and took risks) did the machines like the PC and Mac start to
  really take off.  Hopefully, NeXT can to.

>sigh, enough for tonight.
>andrew

  Me too :-)
  Jon
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware