Path: news.mitre.org!blanket.mitre.org!philabs!newsjunkie.ans.net!newsfeeds.ans.net!news-was.dfn.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!207.241.0.194!news.wwa.com!not-for-mail From: edlee@chinet.chinet.com (Edward Lee) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Subject: Re: Shannon vs. Gwennap (FTC/Intel/Digital and clash of the titans) Date: 14 Jan 1998 03:15:05 -0600 Organization: Chinet Lines: 54 Message-ID: <69hvmp$esh$1@chinet.chinet.com> References: <1998Jan9.153149.1@eisner> <1998Jan11.233409.1@eisner> <34BBE9BA.5E15@mail.server.de> <34BC125D.69C6@world.std.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: chinet.chinet.com In article <34BC125D.69C6@world.std.com>, Terry Shannon wrote: >Y'know, if that's the case, much of the blame lies with what might >charitably be called a Marketing Department at Digital Semiconductor. > >Advertise Alpha? Never happen, not under the current regime. The >consequences are predictable. Radio and magazine advertisements are better than no advertisements at all, but if Digital wants to reach the mass market, then Digital must advertise the Alpha processor on national television. There are still many people who do not read computer magazines or do not have the time or the inclination to listen to the radio and instead relax in front of the television after a stressful day at work. The short-term return on investment for television advertisements may be hard for Digital to justify, but the longer term return on investment in terms of name and brand awareness is impossible to ignore if Digital truly wants to penetrate the mass market or small business market in any significant way with the Alpha processors. I recently visited several retail computer stores in my area, Best Buy, CompUSA, Office Depot, Office Max, and they all seem to have a lot of unsold computer systems based on Pentium-compatible processors that are both more expensive ($2000+) and slower (Pentium MMX 200Mhz) than 533Mhz Alpha 21164PC-based computers offered by companies like Aspen, Microway and Enorex. The few advertisements in Computer Shopper by Enorex for Alpha systems are drowned out by the much more copious Pentium-compatible system advertising. With the introduction of the 21264 processor, Digital will have the opportunity to penetrate the mass market, even with the inefficiency of Windows NT, but the opportunity will pass by if Digital does not advertise on television. Any mass-market computers from Digital had better come with at least double the amount of RAM that Pentium-compatible computers do so that customers are not disappointed by excessive disk paging as I was with my initial purchase of a 21164PC system with 32MB of ECC SDRAM. Digital might focus on short-term profit maximization for the sales of 21264 processors, not advertise aggressively, and then ultimately lose market share as Apple did and perhaps continues to do. However, one thing that Digital has going for them, other than the high speeds of the Alpha processors, is the ingenious decision to use commodity PC hardware for everything except the processor, essentially, in the 21164PC systems. The people who thought of that idea and made it come to fruition should be given an award. That kind of system design gives Digital a lot of staying power as they get plugged in to the economies of scale for PC component pricing and as the price of the central processor continues to become a smaller percentage of the overall computer system cost. There is still hope for Alpha processors to become mass market products if future Alpha processors are able to get plugged into commodity PC component pricing as well. -Ed L These views are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.