[Info-vax] Steve Jobes [was: Apple says ...]

[John Wallace]

On Oct 9, 12:39 am, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
wrote:
> On 10/8/2011 6:05 PM, VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG wrote:
>
>
>
> > In article<SqOdncY9euaqXQ3TnZ2dnUVZ_v-dn... at giganews.com>, "Richard B. Gilbert"<rgilber... at comcast.net>  writes:
> >> On 10/8/2011 3:39 AM, George Cornelius wrote:
> >>> In article<4e8e0bd4$0$2477$e4fe5... at news2.news.xs4all.nl>, MG<marcog... at SPAMxs4all.nl>   writes:
> >>>> Unlike Ken Olsen, Steve Jobs is often deified and gets media coverage
> >>>> all the time; or else his registered trademarks and logos.  Only some
> >>>> online publications, along with a few institutions (like one American
> >>>> university) made mention of Olsen's death, in terms recognition in
> >>>> the mass-media and overall mention in general.  Even DEC 'inheritor'
> >>>> HP barely made mention of Ken Olsen's passing away.  So, yes, there
> >>>> is definitely a difference alright.
>
> >>> Well, Jobs was a national figure.  Olson, even in Digital's heyday,
> >>> was known to few.  Both attempted to market premium products at
> >>> premium prices.  But Olson is well known for disdaining marketing,
> >>> and disdaining the consumer market as well.
>
> >> And he drove DEC right into the ground!  R.I.P. DEC
>
> > I think Palmer had more of a hand in that!
>
> I think there's plenty of blame to spread around.  The fact remains that
> DEC was selling its merchandise at a premium while the competition was
> selling for less, a *lot* less!  At more or less the same time the X86
> platform and MS DOS was starting to conquer the world.  The X86 platform
> became a commodity and sold at commodity prices.  As I recall, the DEC
> Rainbow (X86) PC sold for something like $5,000 list price.
>
> Other vendors could undercut this price and did so!  DEC didn't even TRY
> to compete on price, at least not until it was far too late.
>
> R.I.P. DEC

I forgot a bit, which again relates to competitive pricing (or not).

Richard may think he remembers the Rainbow price but he forgets what
competition he should compare it with.

The Rainbow came from an era when the market still had a significant
investment in Z80 as well as the then relatively new x86, and was long
before Windows was a realistic option. Consequently the Rainbow was an
engineering miracle which had a Z80 and an 8088, and would (on a good
day) transparently run software for either of them. No need for a desk
to have 2 PCs and a user to have 2 copies of the data and all that
goes with that setup.