Re: The Hobby Lobby was Windows CE?

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

I can understand the reason for not doing so. People sometimes think that a
business can do something at little to no cost when, in actuality there
*are* costs. For one thing, even though ACT may have a boxed edition of
Gnat, making it available at some price to the general consumer means you
have to dedicate staff to concentrate on satisfying that market. Someone has
to take the orders, ship the products, process the paperwork and in general
monitor that operation. Not to mention the inevitability of having to deal
with consumer questions & problems. Saying there is "no support" doesn't
mean nobody will ever call you with a complaint or problem. Failing to solve
their problems will give you a bad name in the industry. How much staff time
will there be (fixed and variable) to deal with making a boxed edition
available to consumers? Will there be enough sales to cover those costs?

Also, if you start serving a different market with a different kind of
support, you are potentially altering the image you have with your existing
customers. Their perceptions of what to expect from you may change and you
might be hurting your existing business as a result.

A company that is successful in one market is wise to consider carefully the
entry into a different market. You're getting out of your experience base
and there are lots of risks. Do you really want to do that if the rewards
are negligible?

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"John McCabe" <john.mccabe@emrad.com.nospam> wrote in message
news:3bb434af.3009367@news.demon.co.uk...
> On 27 Sep 2001 18:20:22 -0700, dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) wrote:
>
> >Like a broken record, I will say it again, if you think this is a
> >viable market, then by all means seize the opportunity. I think you
> >can be pretty sure that ACT will
> >not try to compete with you in that segment of the marketplace!
>
> I don't think it is a viable market, at least not as the sole market
> for an organisation. My point is that, as far as I am aware, you (ACT)
> already have a boxed product that is provided to Supported Customers
> (at least that is the impression I got from the nice box, manuals and
> CDs that arrived at the last place I worked - feel free to correct me
> if I'm mistaken here), so why not also sell it to individuals on a
> no-support, fixed price basis?
>
> Of course it is your choice not to do this, and I can appreciate your
> reasons for doing so, but it seems like there is a (admittedly small)
> market there that you (or perhaps an offshoot) could target. As far as
> a third party creating an organisation *just* to target this market, I
> think that would be senseless.
>
>