Sound reasoning.

Way back in 1980 (or '81), I bought an Apple II for the sole purpose of
playing Wizardry (role-playing game similar to Dungeons & Dragons).

Now,  Wizardry isn't a vertical market app, but good software sells the
hardware (remember VisiCalc?). Of course, it doesn't hurt that the 3k is
a rock-solid machine.......

Pat Shugart
Oaksoft Consulting, Inc.
(248)489-6565

>>> Gavin Scott <[log in to unmask]> 11/26/97 02:09pm >>>
John writes:
> I'll go further and say that I think that the
> conventional tiered pricing is a major stumbling-block in the renaissance
> of the HP3000.

Well, I think pricing issues are important, but I really don't think they
are going to have any major effect on the future of the HP3000.  The
*only* thing standing in the way of the HP3000's renaissance is the
availability of vertical market applications to sell with the boxes.

All the "horizontal" software in the world, including all of the Posix
Freeware, is not going to sell any significant number of new 3000s.
There
will always be a cheaper way to run your horizontal applications like
email, web servers, and so on, than the 3000 (Windows 95, NT, Unix,
Linux,
etc.) and chances are the customer already has such systems.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, the HP3000 has always been a vertical
market application box.  People bought them because there was an
application (MANMAN, SGA, Amisys, etc., etc., etc.) that they wanted
to buy that ran on the 3000, not because Adager and MPEX are cool
tools
or that you could get a free web server for it.

If people produce applications which solve customer problems, and do it
better than the other options out there, then they'll be able to sell
those applications, along with an HP3000 to run them on, regardless of
what pricing scheme they choose.

There are companies like OESC that have partnered with those vertical
market applications that still exist on the 3000 and are actually being
successful at selling those applications into new customer sites, to
the amazement of many.

Pricing is a relative thing.  Computerworld a week or two ago had an
announcement that the latest port of PKZIP to MVS is now available.

The price ranges from $15,000 to $27,000.

G.