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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!caen!uvaarpa!murdoch!faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU!jav2d
- From: jav2d@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jason Adams Vanvalkenburgh)
- Subject: Re: cheap PC and pirated DOS/WINDOWS
- Message-ID: <1992Nov5.014928.25165@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
- Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
- Organization: University of Virginia
- References: <0001@gmath.uum.edu>
- Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 01:49:28 GMT
- Lines: 27
-
- I was once in the retail computer business, run out of my home while
- I was in high school (I'm now in college).
-
- In terms of price competetiveness, I could beat anyone's hardware
- prices. But where the difference came was in software...
-
- Legal copies of Dos and Windows could cost more than $100 combined because
- I could not deal in quantity. Large volume suppliers could beat my prices
- by bundling TONS of software with their systems that cost them substantially
- less than what I would pay.
-
- One way around this was to purchase upgrade packages (for DOS 5, Windows,
- Excel, and the like with cheap upgrades). But this had its problems because
- the registration material asked for upgrade info. You were little better
- off with pirated versions (which I did not sell or install).
-
- Gradually I got out of the business for just this reason: without pirating
- software it was difficult to compete, especially with hardware prices falling
- faster than my inventory turnover. I suspect these two factors contributed
- to the sudden closing of a lot of clone-shops.
-
- -jason v.
- --
- Jason A. vanValkenburgh
- University of Virginia
- ACC MicroConsultant
- jav2d@virginia.edu
-