CompuServe Messages

Please let the folks at CEI know the price point of reviving a three legged horse. There are many other horses up for auction/sale. Industrial users that need 1200's & 4000's are looking to other platforms to ply their trade. The new 040T or whatever system needs BIG hard drives (at least 540mb), 14 megs of ram, composite video, CD-ROM, speakers, monitor, operating system plus freebee software, pcmcia compatibilty, (oh, 2 more slots too), and…. …IT MUST COST LESS THAN $2000… (pardon my shouting). This is 1994 and P5's with MPC/2 are now crashing the $1800. barrier and will soon be $1400. in '95. Bridgeboard or Emplant compatibility is great, however it is not what these machines are about. Every machine must come with a hard drive and a serial port or pcmcia to exist in today's world. Software devlopment has come to a virtual standstill. I will take years for the the platform to be viable. The major players have seen the end and are retooling to other platforms. Who will want to support the platform? At what price? Does the market see a value in all of this? The present players do not see the potential boon in having "a going out of business sale." It is inevidible. Also, no more software with dongles. This is the only platform that uses them. A laptop would be great, a.c. powered is fine too. The 1200 with an 040, 10megs ram, and a SMALLER power supply, so they both fit into a breifcase would go a long way in today's business marketplace. (Wow, who thought of putting pcmcia on it?) The 1200/040 needs to be competitive at $1000. (By the way tell them I can use about 575 right now!) Forget the 030 chip based boxes – these are competitive with the 386's and MAC Perfoma boxes. $600 now. (yawn) Forget the CD32 as it is currently configued. In order to use it in my world I have to buy all these third party things that cost LOTS of money to make it a real whopper!… Put the CD-32 guts in the CDTV with an 040, 400mb hard drive, and pcmcia. I don't want a floppy drive. There are big gains going on in the PC and MAC arenas as you well know. In order to get the >A< machine's credibity going again, they need to represent VALUE now! It is ridiculous that CEI 4000/030's that cost $3000. Tell CEI that the industry wants VALUE! If the pipline is going to open again, get industrial users to support their efforts by providing VALUE. ( Did I say that word again?) By the way are there any spare parts left in this world? The best method of distribution is to break right into the major PC and MAC mags with a single full page ad, and create a mail order distribution network right out of Miami. Sorry dealers, but you all have gotten real jobs now right? Did you really sell all that software? So this thoroughbred horse will probably be fitted with an artificle leg. There may even be an audience willing to pay a premium to to see it trot a little, and hear the story of how it really truely raced in the Derby. But the only true future will most likely be that of a draught horse. Like all stallions that fall and break their leg, their masters save them from the glue factory for a life of servitude to be sold at the auction for pennys on the dollar. There are many, many, many draught horses that lived long lives. They represent VALUE. From a shadow of fortune 500 industry via cserve.