!Re: Nuke Redmond!

From: allisonp <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Sun Apr 9 10:24:44 2000

>Since that seems to be the almost the only aspect that matters these
>days, then maybe that one of the reasons why DEC did not succeed.


Their lack of direct marketing via radio and TV was a handicap. However,
KO felt the product being marketed was a technical one for professionals
and not directed at hobbiests.

>As you, and many others have stated, DEC had a better mouse
>trap. It almost always worked. The cheese was delicious and
>rarely ran out. But the other reason for the failure of DEC was that
>the DEC mouse trap was so much more expensive to buy that few
>households could afford to buy one. Never mind that in the long

Mostly prose but not completely true. The cost for a Robin, Rainbow
or PRO was consistant with the time for a competeing system with
similar hardware, software and quality. Of course that was the early 80s.

Reality was much more complex than the story of mice and traps.

DEC suffered from a complex product, limited marketing and a vision
that was right for the industry as it was (60s, 70s and early 80s) and
not was it is (for 1987 on). As a result DEC was holding facilities
like PNO, WFO and others complete with trained personell and
nothing for them to do quite literally. At the same time engineering
and marketing groups were sending things overseas for cost reasons.
It didn't take a brain surgeon to see that overhead was way out of line
as there were no layoffs until Palmer appeared. Also over the years
there were what I called "stupid product decisions".

My favorite is the LA75, $700 printer that TEC sold for $350 at local
stores. Sure DEC improved it, but it was costly. Other were monsters
like the VAX9000, fast, powerful and expensive. It was quickly replaced
by the cheaper 6000 series. Older projects like the PRO, sold maybe
 40,000 units against a plan that was only scaled for 30,000! If that
sounds bad it was declared a failure. Exceeded plan and failed! An
example of short sightedness as to the size of the market. Other
examples are infamous. I got the dubious honor of participating in
just a few.

DEC was a engineering, a technology and service company. They did
not do a good job at marketing. It was mismanagemant of costs would
end a good run.

I used to remind people and they thought me nuts. If you want to annoy
the customer ship junk. If you really want to become unforgetable in the
customers eyes, go out of business. The former they can forgive if you
fix it, the latter is unforgiveable as your product is part of their
business.

DEC came close to unforgiveable, save for Compaq being there.

Allison
Received on Sun Apr 09 2000 - 10:24:44 BST

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