[28] in bcs-newton
Pricing of the Newton
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Rinaldo)
Sun Oct 18 18:08:40 1992
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 92 18:21:26 EST
From: bcs_jim@MIT.EDU (Jim Rinaldo)
To: bcs-newton@world.std.com
Hi Folks;
I just wanted to throw out this curve ball to everyone.
What should the price be of the Apple Newton?
I think it should cost $397 for the basic model. I derive this price
from measuring market expectations, divided by Sharp sales, squared by
the percent likelyhood that the ATT Hobbit in one of its forms will be
successful, and then throwing this all away.
$397 is the perfect price because that is what an Altair computer cost
when it was first advertized in Popular Science. It was the founding
father of the personal computer revolution.
The Newton (or newt for short) will be the founder of the first
generation pdas.
I feel this price differentiates the technology from the sharp and casio
pocket organizers, but keeps it reasonable enough so that ordinary folks
can buy them.
I realize that Apple has started spinning newt towards some fictional
"Business PDA" market that will probably have 1/100 the share as say an
educational or small business market. I have a feeling that this
scenario will entail "charge per bit" communications, telecomm devices
more expensive than newt, and other foolishness that will surely kill
ANY innovations in the wireless communications market.
What do you think? How much for a newt? What would you pay? What would
it have to do out of the box?
Jim Rinaldo
