This is Next-"Higher-Education"-prices in view mode; [Up]
Date: Sun 02-Nov-1989 15:38:31 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Next "Higher Education" prices In article <15526@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> jnicolas@Athena.MIT.EDU (Julien J Nicolas) writes: >Next lists the higher education price to be $6500 for the basic >configuration system. Have any of you actually purchased your machine at >that price? I would be very interested to kow *where*. We can get it at >the very "special" price of $7350 at the university computer store which >leads me to conclude that the computer store is topping it off with a >10% additional charge, not including sales tax 5%. This is surprising At the University of Rochester, our Computer Sales purchases the machine for $6500 and sells it for $6900 to cover support, overhead, shipping, etc. Your store may be covering more support than ours is (we pay for most of the system support with dean's funds). NeXT only get $6500 for each machine. >would pay if you go to Businessland (why isn't Businessland adding a >10-15% surchage too?). So it looks to me like the student price is 15% >less than the regular price, not 30%. Hardly a big saving! I'll bet that NeXT is selling the computer to Businessland for somewhere near $6500 and Businessland is taking a much larger markup for handling the product. After all, they have to make money selling computers while universities are supposed to make their money from education and research.
Date: Sun 02-Nov-1989 09:05:04 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Next "Higher Education" prices I certainly wouldnt be complaining about a 26.5% discount compared to what you'd pay at Businessland. Where do student buyers get their cubes fixed/etc? Hopefully theres another source besides Bland for service...being an ex-service-techie for Bland, well...nevermind. >From: jcargill@oka.cs.wisc.edu (Jon Cargille)
Date: Sun 03-Nov-1989 02:47:04 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Next "Higher Education" prices Hmmm, I have been interested in purchasing a NeXT, so I did a little looking around in our campus computer store. After all the talk about the announced education prices being far from reality, I was surprised to find that the basic NeXT (8mb, Megapixel, 256 OD + bundled software) sells here for 6995.00. Not as far from the announced 6500 as I expected. It is strange though, that NeXT inc. would announce wholesale prices. Sounds kinda sneaky doesn't it. BTW : if anyone would like to give me a loan for this puppy, lemme know ;) =========================================================================== Mark Edward Kern, Quagmire Studios. "We not only hear you, we feel you!" ===========================================================================
Date: Sun 03-Nov-1989 04:51:22 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Next "Higher Education" prices In article <>, mek4_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Mark Kern) writes: > Hmmm, > I have been interested in purchasing a NeXT, so I did a little > looking around in our campus computer store. After all the talk about the > announced education prices being far from reality, I was surprised to > find that the basic NeXT (8mb, Megapixel, 256 OD + bundled software) > sells here for 6995.00. Not as far from the announced 6500 as I expected. ^^^^^^^ > It is strange though, that NeXT inc. would announce wholesale prices. > Sounds kinda sneaky doesn't it. The University of Texas, fine institution that it is, will ream you to the tune of $7300 for an absolute minimum cube. (Optical only, 8MB, no printer) This results in a usable system (330, Printer, 8MB) costing $13,000. Rant rave mode on: If NeXT really wanted students buying these machines, they would: 1. Offer a 2 optical drive system. My need for storage outweighs my need for absolute speed, so having a second optical drive makes sense. The estimated price for this would be about $1500. (Before university mark-up.) [See _The NeXT Book_ and the Nov. 88 _BYTE_ for assorted references to an optional second optical drive.] The only thing I've ever heard out of NeXT was from a local sales rep. in the Austin office. He claims that the controller has a bug that, if two optical drives are attached, causes BOTH drives to spin down even if the spin-down signal was only sent to one of the drives. NeXT should get off their tush and solve the damn problem. 2. Offer the HP-DeskJet as a low-end printer. 3. Offer something like AppleCredit so that students CAN buy the damn machine. My credit union informed me today, for example, that ALL personal computers cost less than $5000. 4. Stop being so damn quiet about the machine. People keep wondering about future upgrades. So far, I've heard about -A 50MHz 68040 upgrade -A multiple processor 88000 upgrade -A color upgrade (display) -A color upgrade (printer) -A 2 sided optical disk upgrade Has NeXT done anything to quiet rumors or inject facts? Nope. In short, they should stop acting like Apple, the bad boy of the computer industry. Oh, and by the way, people have been wondering about NeXT part number N4000 (Megapixel display). According to my price list, part numbers for the Cube (N1000[-108|-208|-308]) (OD,330,660) do NOT include the display. So, to assemble an OD only system, you must buy: N1000-108 The Basic Cube N4000 The Megapixel Display (Since you were curious, N1### Cube N2### Printer Stuff N3### Disk Drives N4### Megapixel Display N5### Optical Media items N7### Ethernet kits ) - John H. Osborn * University of Texas at Austin Comp. Sci. Dept. osborn@cs.utexas.edu * "Love your SysAdmin." >From: rc3h+@andrew.cmu.edu (Ross Ward Comer)
Date: Sun 03-Nov-1989 05:39:35 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Next "Higher Education" prices >From the Carnegie Mellon Computer Store Price List: (Available by "Special Order -Depts. Only") (6% tax on individual purchase) RAM no HD 330MB 660MB 8 6770 8855 10940 12 8330 10415 12500 16 9830 11975 14060 Laser 2128 Toner 110 I'd like to know when their going to make it available to "the rest off us"!!! Ross Comer Random CMU Student "Don't go here (we want it all to our selves!)" >From: dc4f+@andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel Crimmins)
Date: Sun 03-Nov-1989 14:39:15 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Next "Higher Education" prices In article <7122@cs.utexas.edu> osborn@cs.utexas.edu (John Howard Osborn) writes: >The University of Texas, fine institution that it is, will ream you to >the tune of $7300 for an absolute minimum cube. (Optical only, 8MB, >no printer) This results in a usable system (330, Printer, 8MB) costing >$13,000. > I paid about $13,000 total for this configuration, even though my school only charged me the list price, i.e., $6500 for the Cube, $2000 for the printer etc. The bottom line is that someone has to pay for service, and in my case, I had to pay for a service contract through Businessland, since my school wasn't willing to get involved in supporting the NeXT, at least not yet. Some of the prices I've seen quoted here as unfairly "high" are high only if you expected someone to support your NeXT for free. The unfortunate truth is that the NeXT costs a lot of money. This is because the NeXT is a lot of computer. Try to get the equivalent in a Mac II for anything close to the same price. I hope that NeXT will do everything in its power to bring the price down; at its present list price, even at the educational price, it's clearly not a student machine--or even a "faculty" machine in most cases. But this doesn't change the fact that for what you get for your money, the NeXT is a good deal. > >4. Stop being so damn quiet about the machine. People keep wondering >about future upgrades. So far, I've heard about > -A 50MHz 68040 upgrade I fervently hope that this rumor is true, since even when running off a hard disk, the NeXT is still too slow. Not "unusably" slow as I've heard some people say. But certainly not as fast as I would like. However, I was told by a NeXT rep (Chris Younger, to be specific) that there were no plans for a CPU upgrade, and that he "didn't know how this rumor got started." It's hard to believe that NeXT hasn't given some hard thought to this, esp. with so many people (i.e., potential customers) complaining about the machine being too slow. After all, they have altered the base configuration to include the 40MB "accelerator." But this is what Younger said, and it has haunted me ever since. >Has NeXT done anything to quiet rumors or inject facts? Nope. >In short, they should stop acting like Apple, the bad boy of the >computer industry. > I've never had direct dealings with Apple, so I have no basis for a comparison. But all in all I've been impressed with the NeXT people I've had coontact with. For instance, when asked about the possibility of future upgrades that would obsolete earlier equipment, Younger told me that NeXT considered it a "moral" issue, and was committed NOT to do this to its early cusstomers. I was impressed by his/their recognition that there is indeed a moral issue here. Still, I agree that a little more reliable information on what NeXT plans to do in the next year or so would be helpful.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.