Suns in the Personal Computer market

[David L. Markowitz]

In article <8904222133.AA04813 at origin.life.uiuc.edu>, smith at origin.life.uiuc.edu (Steven Smith) writes:
> With the advent of the new SUN 3/80, Sun is in a position that the company
> has never been in before.  Sun can now offer a system that is functionally
> as good as (better) than a similarly equipped Macintosh for a lower price.
> This places Sun in a much larger market share than they have held in the
> past.  Sun can now deliver software "compatible" products that span all
> the way from desktop micro to graphic workstations to large scale
> mainframes, and in the process, blur the lines dividing them a bit more.
> But will Sun be ready for the micro market?

I think Sun is very worried about this too.  They don't yet know HOW to
approach this market.  I have been told that Sun would like to market
these machines through stores, but they are waiting for a few things.  One
comment that I heard was that Sun is "waiting for an appropriate product"!
It sure seems to me like they already have a couple and are just dragging
their mice - ummm - feet.  Considering that IBM markets the RT through
retail outlets...

> In order for Sun to make any dent in the personal computer market, their
> notions about software pricing must change.

Not just theirs - the third party software companies are just as, if not
more so, guilty of this.

> At the same time, new tools such as SunWrite/Draw/Paint are
> priced at an outrageous $1000, even though such tools are considered
> mandatory for any functional personal computer in today's market.

I have been marketing software for Suns for the past three years.  At one
point I was informed (by a potential customer) that I had the lowest
priced product in the Catalyst catalog.  This was because my product is a
game, and I had priced it based on the cost of games for PC's.  It is no
longer listed because Sun, in their wisdom, decided to drop the games
section of Catalyst.  Now that Suns are making their way into the home and
dormitory (this started with the 386i), I would like to see a simple way
to market this "shrink-wrap" software that Sun likes to talk about.

> If Sun does plan to move into the low-cost market, then they must make it
> affordable to program and use their machines.  There is a lot to be said
> for the NeXT machine for this reason alone.  The $6500 that an educator
> pays gets him much more than just a black box.  Why Jobs even bundled
> Mathematica, not to mention all of the basic tools.

They also need an easier retail/educational sales outlet for hardware
and software.  You can't expect a sophomore to go to Sun's local office,
and if they (all) did, the office wouldn't be able to handle the load.
How about "authorized service centers"?  What do students do when the
monitor dies?

> So Sun, if you are listening, you have a chance to knock the top right off
> of the low end market.  But you must make it worth while for people to
> make the big jump to Unix.  You must convince the cottage software
> industry that you will help not hinder them in development.  And you MUST
> make it cheaper for people to get basic work done.

Even if Sun isn't listening.  Are any other entrepreneurs out there
interested in creating a Sun software marketing house?  I've got some
products waiting for a market - who else does?

	David L. Markowitz		Rockwell International
	...!sun!sunkist!arcturus!dav	dav at arcturus.UUCP
	The above opinions are merely that, and only mine.