Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would youchoose?

[Stephen Shaw <xstephenx@apple2.org.za>]

On Mon, 16 Jul 2001 18:34:54 -0400, Bob Retelle wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Jul 2001 19:03:20 +0000, SWE/YesCREW <jvalant@m42.cx>
> wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 15 Jul 2001, Beyonder wrote:
>>
>>> You people are insane.
>>> for $300 you can get a high end pentium 3 system, loaded.
>>> for $100 more you can get a high end 1.4gig system, loaded.
>>> and these are retail prices! that doesn't include monitor, but who
>>> cares?
>>>
>>> get with the times.
>>
>>  Why buying a PC, topic say, "if u could design" not what would u buy..
>>
>>
>>
>>							Janez
>>
>
> It's called "Market Research".
>
> It's part of the process of finding out if there is already something
> on the market at the same or lower price point.
>
> If someone is already making something like "The Wonder Widget" and
> selling it for half what it would cost YOU to make your version of a
> Wonder Widget, it wouldn't make any sense for you to try to sell one,
> and it wouldn't make any sense for anyone to finance your business.
>
> If Gigahertz computers still cost $3000, it might make sense to try to
> come up with a $300 computer that would do a lot of the same things.
>
> Unfortunately, as some of the messages here have pointed out,
> Gigahertz computers now cost as little as $350, making a "New"
> computer based around some arcane, non-compatible, possibly obsolete
> CPU chip, with no software available, and a user-unfriendly operating
> system an awfully "hard sell" in the marketplace.
>
> Companies like Atari, Amiga, Sinclair, (fill in the name of any one of
> dozens of others) and even Apple have found out the hard way that just
> having a "superior" box won't do any good at all if no one buys it.
>
> The question is, who will buy this new $300 box?
>
>
> BobR

I think you are missing the point. Rolls Royce still make cars to a standard
not to a price. Kit cars (usually VW based) are still available. I think a "kit
computer" is a nice niche idea. I certainly subscribe to the idea behind it.


-- 
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