From: zmonster@athena.mit.edu (Eric M Hermanson)
Subject: Re: Mac vs. NeXT (was Mac Multitasking?)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 01:19:36 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.231636.522@athena.mit.edu> mflafeer@athena.mit.edu (Mohamed F. Lafeer) writes:

>
>I agree that the NeXT is great. But now that I am going into the real world
>I have to make decisions based on more than just "get the best." 
>
>Buying a Mac and buying/developing Mac software means more flexibility than
>NeXT. Mac software runs on cheap computers, computers with big monitors and
>68040s, and computers that weigh 4lbs and fit in a briefcase.

Runs on computers with big monitors??  What does that have to do with the
price of cheese?  So what, you can go out and buy a 21 inch Radius monitor
for Mac and pay $3000.  That doesn't make the OS any better.  And you
are right, Mac software runs on 68040's (as overpriced as they may be).

>
>The Mac market is large. It is fed by hundreds of companies. It is not as
>large as the PC market, but it is large enough to be stable and trustworthy.
>Macs are not just found in advertising firms any more, they have found a 
>place in every segment of the computer industry. 
>
>If NS486 is everything you say it is, and if NS486 sells a million copies, 
>then I'll look at NeXT and think about investing in it. 
>
>NeXT is a small privately owned company. It does not have any significant
>partners. Apple is a large, publicly-held company with a known stable financial
>situation. Apple has significant dealings with another pair of large, stable,
>publicly held companies, Motorola and IBM.

Canon Inc. owns roughly 40% of NeXT.  Ross Perot Owns around 12%.  Steve Jobs
owns around 45%.  Stanford and Carnegie Mellon Own the Rest.  NeXT has plans
to become a public stock company next year.

Now lets take a look at the major Apple partners in crime (just a metaphor).

IBM:  Just laid off thousands of people.  In dire financial trouble.
Motorola:  Has not produced any new chip lines since the 68040, which is 
           already almost two years old.  The 88110 series is almost dead.
           There are no companies that I am aware of that plan to use that
           "buggy" chip in their future systems (even NeXT has given up on 
           them).  End result:  Motorola is in trouble.  They are two years
           behind Intel in chip design.  They are even further behind
           DEC (Alpha) and HP (PA-RISC).

>
>Who knows exactly what will happen in the computer market in the next few
>years? All of this talk about NS486 sales, PowerOPEN, and Taligent are purely
>speculation. The bottom line is that I need to solve certain business needs



At least NS486 will be available within five months to turn that speculation
into hard proof.  


>
>In summary, I do not share your optimism about the future of NeXT in the
>mainstream of computer users and purchasers. I think that MS-DOS, Windows, and
>MacOS, and future derivatives of these systems are the present and future
>mainstream. This is not to say that these OSes are better than NeXT or even
>as good as NeXT. These are just market realities.
>.
>
>-Firoze
>
I still think you are making a huge mistake by basing your optimism on 
market realities!  In the high tech field, if you do not produce faster
and better technology, then you will die a slow, cruel death.  Why is
Texas Instruments out of business today?  What about Radio Shack (Tandy)?
They seemed to have a big share of the market about 10-12 years ago, and now?
They just didn't produce quality stuff, and they were pushed out of the 
market not due to market share, but due to shitty technology.  People put
up with DOS and Windows because they don't know there is something better
out there.  NeXTstep486 will put a pretty nice dent into Windoze market share.

Eric

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy