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Re: Nice demo, but why does it die?



I sent Scotty a more lengthy reply than perhaps was appropriate, but  
the basic reason that it dies is that is how I thought it should  
behave when I wrote it, and now that I can see clearly that I was  
wrong, we've rolled that change in with a bunch of other changes that  
people have suggest.

We won't be adding applications to the "big ticket" list, but that  
doesn't mean that Executor won't run other applications.  Those are  
just the applications that you have to pay extra for.  This leads to  
my defense of our pricing policy.

With a base price of $80 (includes support for one "big ticket" app),  
the only reason you'd need to pay more than $420 would be if you  
wanted to run more than 6 of the apps *that are on the list* (you  
qualify for the quantity 2-9 discount if you buy support for 6 apps;  
6 * $70 = $420).  I don't have the retail prices for these apps, but  
I'd guess the average price would be at least $200 (we tried to keep  
low cost apps off the list for this very reason).  So I believe that  
having people who have a $1,200 investement in software pay $420 to  
run that software (as well as all the apps that will work by then and  
not be on the "big ticket" list) is a fair exchange to allow people  
who have a much smaller investment be able to run apps at a lower  
price.  By the time we have all the "big ticket" apps running  
flawlessly (approx. 9 months away is my guess), most other apps will  
run.  You'll be able to run hundreds of apps for $80; just not the  
"big ticket" ones.

Comparing us to SoftPC is fine, but be aware that because SoftPC is  
able to license the operating system from Microsoft, you really need  
to acknowledge that what they've done is much easier than what we're  
proposing (remember, you're talking about the full-blown version of  
Executor).  They also don't have anywhere near the legal headaches  
that we have, and my understanding is that currently SoftPC is  
useless for running graphics programs on a NeXT.

So far, most people who understand our pricing scheme have given us  
compliments for it; especially now that the list has been nailed  
down.

BTW, there's a piece of software available for the SPARC called  
"Liken".  It is similar to Executor in many respects.  It lists for  
$700, I believe [our price had been set a long time before we heard  
about their price], but you have to "acquire" an Apple System file.   
What they've done is much easier than what we've done, (much less  
what we're proposing), since they get most of the support directly  
out of the System file.  Another company, Quorum, is supposed to have  
some Mac emulation software out in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th quarter (the  
date appears to be slipping), and I believe they're proposing a >$700  
price tag.  Note also that both companies are working in much larger  
markets than the NeXT market, so they can afford to price their  
software *lower*, although in all honesty, we're using the NeXT as a  
loss-leader.  We expect to make our money in other markets.

	--Cliff