On 11 Nov 1998, Eric Smith wrote:
> > I congratulate you and MITS upon being major influences in the founding of
> > the computer hobby market. It's too bad you didn't get the profit from
> > your efforts that they did from theirs, but that's YOUR fault, not theirs
> > or the hobbyists. You underpriced your product.
>
> I think Mike reached exactly the opposite conclusion that I did. Bill
> priced BASIC too high. If the various versions had ranged in price from
> (say) $50 to $150, instead of $150 to $350, I think he would have found
> a lot more takers.
Absolutely. I agree 100%. If he had priced it in the range that a
hobbyist could afford, and proportionate to the cost of the system ($500
for the kit?) then people would buy it. Its nothing to throw down $25 or
$50 if you're getting a manual and support with that.
> What made people think that a good BASIC interpreter and a Disk Operating
> System were worth $350 and $500, respectively? Seems ludicrous even in
> in 1998 dollars; in 1976 dollars that was utterly insane.
I think Chuck's reasoning that Micro-Soft wouldn't last at those prices
was appropriate. Chuck just couldn't predict that 4 years later IBM would
be licensing an operating system from Microsoft that would prevent them
from being Yet Another Software Company.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Wed Nov 11 1998 - 00:21:39 GMT