Bruce Toback <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Alfredo writes:
>
>>So, to steal yet another idea from Wirt, I would like to state, publicly,
>>that Adager will be happy to consider a good tier-based DISCOUNT for a
>>Series 908 (or equivalent) smallish HP3000 whose target audience is not
>>"developers" but "small businesses" (or small locations for any size of
>>business, or whatever).
>
>Hmm... not that I wish to discourage Alfredo, but this sounds familiar.
>
>The "slippery slope" of tier pricing started in the 3000 world when HP
>introduced special software pricing for the HP 3000 Series 37. They did
>this when potential customers rightly pointed out that the price of a
>modest selection of software for a Series 37 system would exceed the
>price of the hardware by 50%. HP responded by introducing a Series 37
>software price, and a software upgrade. From two tiers great staircases
>sometimes grow.


Bruce is right:  "Killing the goose that laid the golden eggs" is not a new
concept, unfortunately.

Fortunately, I also wrote this qualifier in my original post:

        This is definitely NOT an easy issue and I believe "feel" has much
        more to do with it than "science" (if there is such a thing as
        "pricing science").

The whole world is a giant slippery slope.  Some people just slip more than
others :-)

I strongly believe there is still room for decency, though.


 _______________
|               |
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|            r  |  Alfredo              mailto:[log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego               Tel 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, R & D Labs           Fax 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
|_______________|