[30] in bcs-newton
Re: Pricing of the Newton
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sam Hunting)
Fri Oct 23 22:31:33 1992
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1992 22:29:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sam Hunting <shunting@world.std.com>
To: Jim Rinaldo <bcs_jim@MIT.EDU>
Cc: bcs-newton@world.std.com
In-Reply-To: <9210182208.AA14087@MIT.EDU>
That may be the optimal price from the users standpoint, but hardly from
Apple's standpoint. And Apple is here today, whereas Altair is but a memory.
I vote for list price $799, street price $650.
On Sun, 18 Oct 1992, Jim Rinaldo wrote:
> 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
