[Info-vax] Reading Gordon Bell's VAX strategy document

[John Dallman]

In article <uepms6$1ds91$1 at dont-email.me>, davef at tsoft-inc.com (Dave
Froble) wrote:

> Well, you're right about "after the fact" ...

Yup. 

> I cannot remember exactly when the first C-VAX came out, but when 
> it did, DEC then made the fatal mistake.  I'm not sure they 
> actually had any options.  The company was rather "top heavy" with 
> many employees to support.

CVAX systems were available in 1987, according to Wikipedia. But it's a
multi-chip set, more expensive to manufacture and build boards for than
an Intel 80386. 

> If DEC had went after the low end market with the C-VAX, I really 
> feel that DEC would still be with us today.  

Maybe. The MS-DOS hardware and software industry was already very well
established, and competition had driven hardware prices down a lot. DEC
would have had to pick some niches to target and win several of them.

> Since PC users don't have large budgets for support and such, DEC
> would have had to downsize the labor force, and that was something 
> they would have a hard time with.

They'd also have to make system administration easy for first-timers, and
condense the documentation a lot. It's a hard thing to do while you're
cutting staff. 

John