Re: The Hobby Lobby was Windows CE?

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

Sure. There are hobbyists, students, etc. who might have a few bucks in
their pockets and upon seeing a store display (or at least a boxed set)
might look at the price tag and say "Hey, I've heard a few things about this
language - maybe for a few $$$ I'll pick up this kit and see if I can learn
a little bit about it..." There won't be very many impulse buyers at $1000
per kit, but there might be quite a few at $100 and certainly more at
$29.95.

I don't think that all of it would come from impulse buying. You'd have to
do some sort of advertising campaign or otherwise find promotions that would
generate some level of interest, but the key is to have it available in some
local store where people can see it and get their hands on it immediately
for a price that isn't off-putting. If someone has to search it out, you'll
only get the sales of the die-hard Ada fans - preaching to the choir. If it
confronts the unexpected customer, but has some kind of delay involved
(order now, ship within X days) it will find more buyers, but not as many as
if it is right there in front of the buyer and available at a price that
doesn't give the buyer reason to pause & think about finances.

That's just basic marketing at work here. I think Ada would fare better if
it had *some* presence in the computer stores where the geeks hang out. Try
going into one of these and looking at the books on the shelf. You'll find
lots of books for a variety of languages, but I'd bet good money you won't
find a single text on Ada in most of the computer or book outlets. How are
"The Masses" going to find out about Ada and potentially like/use Ada if
they never get any exposure to it? Without a store presence on *some* level,
the neyophyte will get the impression that it is only some sort of curiosity
that has no real base of users because you never see it anywhere. That
creates even more reasons to ignore the language.

Ada has been pretty good with hiding its light under a bushel basket. I
think that needs to be changed.

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/


"Nils Kassube" <nika@kassube.de> wrote in message
news:87k7ygpxbc.fsf@kursk.kassube.de...
> "Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org> writes:
>
> > without a presence on store shelves. The question is, how much
> > better would sales be if there *were* a presence on store shelves
> > where impulse buyers with no prior Ada experience might pick it up?
>
> Do you really think there are any impulse buyers at all for
> programming environments?