Re: Pilgrim's progress at the medicine show

Graeme and gang, This is another big one...sorry if it clogs up your email,,,I just want to make sure others have a chance to respond... :-) Tim ========================================================================= A response to Graeme Sargent on New Era Pricing. [Stuff Deleted] <-- notice the INI-style marker ":-) : You have Dynamic Scalable Architecture, why not Dynamic Scalable Pricing? >Dynamic Scalable Pricing is *EXACTLY* what Phil would *LOVE* to do. Then why doesn't he just do it, like Nike would say. >But I get the distinct impression that you would be amongst the first to >squeal when you discovered that you paid more than Joe Bloggs (or John >Doe) next door. I may or may not. As most know by now I don't run with the pack. This market is forcing me to make some very lean decisions, and price DOES play a part. A small difference in price CAN make a difference if you buy in blocks and not just ONE copy. The wrong OS right now can break you. The OS of choice contains more than a command-line. THE PROBLEM IS THE PRICE. But it ain't my problem now. I realize many of the readers here will get their New Era courtesy of the big company they work for, so they're not saying a lot. But ask the MIS director who has to cough up a 10-seat license, more memory for PCs, more hard drives, new Windows, and network cards and on and on--it starts to get ugly. And what about the duality of supporting BOTH 4GL and C/S? Even the big company will find a fall guy when the bill comes in. Or they just won't buy. I know several sites where client/server will evolve very slowly just to avoid buying into a high-priced mistake. This is an EMERGING market, not yet mature. Put the cost into a spreadsheet and then talk to me. MS-Access isn't the final resting place either. But along the road it will define more of the market by its' accessability in the market place. I love Walleyed Pike, but down here in Florida it's impossible to find. It's some of the best tasting fresh water fish, but not very accessable. Funny how Microsoft came up with that name, "Access". INFORMIX is going after the cash cows for now, but by the time they get to mainstream DP, it'll be too late. But then they may be planning on that anyway. Fewer customer support problems. Those of you who <will> get New Era are going to sigh relief like you made it to the semi-finals in basketball. You're gonna feel like "Whew, I made it, how lucky I am!". Client/Server is being DEFINED by scalable software and hardware with scalable pricing. There <are> actually small businesses that are starting up, and will eventually get bigger. There are also big companies that are scaling their DP operations down. Both need scalability, in both directions. Both stay afloat by spending wisely. >Now, as you will no doubt immediately realise, Phil might not be too >upset by your squeals, but he sure as h*** doesn't want to have to deal >with such squeals coming from Lockheed, Boeing, Citibank, Uncle Sam, >Hyatt and their ilk! Which way? That it costs too much or too little? The smart person in MIS that can grasp what client/server is all about is going to have enough business sense to buy HIGH QUALITY, LOW COST, CLEARLY DEFINED products, knowing full well the life of the products he/she will be buying today may have only a 6-8-month life span. Even shareware products are getting out of hand. Every time I turn around a new release of a shareware product comes out even better than the last one. Thank God I didn't spend a lot of money on the last release! >I can remember similar complaints and incredulity about I-4GL pricing >back in '86. Yeah, and there wasn't much to choose from either. >All right, you can argue that I-4GL never became more than a niche >product compared to COBOL, but I wouldn't mind having earnt even a tiny >royalty percentage on it! Earnings on COBOL or 4GL? :-) >I don't think Phil expects or intends that NewEra would obliterate VB >(and certainly not VC++, as somebody on the original thread seemed to >think!). I doubt that he feels that it needs to. Since when would a 'CEO of the year' want to be in second place? No, I think once INFORMIX really gets a grasp on the market they'll see that it's a fast game where you keep moving or die. If you apply scalability to my business, it's the same, I either move quickly or I die. And I apply prudent spending whenever possible. Or I don't eat. This is a market where the volley you launch can make or break you. >There will always be people out there that can see the difference >between a socket set and a set of spanners and are prepared to accept >that they can be priced differently. And there will also be plenty of >people that buy both!. : Look at the Trojan Horse marketing strategy of Microsoft and you can't go : wrong. >Yet how many of the companies that followed that advice can you name, or >even remember? Well since you mentioned it, plenty. Sears has sold a LOT of tools with scalable pricing in mind. Volkswagen was founded on it. AT&T uses it all the time. Henry Ford did it. Thomas Edison went nuts with it. Chrysler came back from the dead with it. DEC is coming back with it. And now Bill Gates will bury UNIX with it. >Informix' blackest period financially was when they were trying to copy >Oracle. I don't remember this, but if you say so. I think they're trying to copy Oracle NOW, but who's keeping track. >Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. IMHO They got back on track by >concentrating on their own strengths, not by trying to emulate someone >elses. Well, speaking of Oracle, don't they charge a bit much for their products? And what's with the INFORMIX/VC++ link? Isn't that riding Microsoft's coattails a bit? Or a concession? INFORMIX may well be saying they don't want to reach a broad market anymore. They confused me with New Era. I thought it was going to be a product that would kill PowerBuilder, or Gupta, but we know that ain't gonna happen. :-) The video tape and demo diskette showed stuff that looked a lot like the PowerBuilder stuff. I must not have too much on the ball. If it looks, walks and quacks like a duck, isn't it a duck? Don't ask me to support a New Era app. I can't afford to learn it. It won't be mainstream enough to mess with anyway. Just a nice toy. But I will be available for Microsoft/Borland/Other solutions. These are the companies that brought us PC apps we used to chuckle over. PC programmers used to show me their great looking apps till I asked how many they could run at one time. That shut 'em up. Now multi-tasking is on the desktop. Guess who's laughing now... BTW, you have a great looking pyramid in your sig...it's almost 3D. Do Pyramid machines run Windows NT? They might have to. :-) Oh, just got my BYTE Special Report on C/S. Hey look, there's a Watcom add showing an UNLIMITED user license for their data base at $4995.00, 6-user license for just $795.00. And they boast "Don't let the price fool you.". Who said this market doesn't care about price? The revolution continues...@@NL@