Conference 7.286::digital

    I noticed (mentioned) this back when Dan Rather mentioned on the 6:30 
    news that the Pentium was "the fastest chip in the world".
    
    It wasn't, and still isn't.  But that doens't matter, because 
    Dan Rather "said so".
    
    Digital, they make watches huh?  I still think Winston Cup racing
    would be a fanastic marketing/advertising/branding tool.  I've said that 
    before too.  Fire away. 
    
    MadMike

Would you mind giving a very brief rundown on
what they said about Apple?

The reason Digital wasnt mentioned perhaps is that its
not considered a contender in that market or maybe in any
market. Then again it might have been an accidental
ommission. :^) Another possibility is that the producer
decided if he couldnt say anything nice hed say nothing
at all. ;^) Who knows...callem up and ask. I dont see why
things like this are surprising. It seems to be a pretty
common occurrance.

    RE: .2
    
    Another reason we might not be there is we did't pay for a plug ?
    

    
    Or perhaps because our corporate slogan is:
    
    
      DIGITAL -- We challenge you to figure out what we do!
    

    
    
     <<<DIGITAL -- We challenge you to figure out what we do!
    
    
    
    		SAD!!! But so true.....
    
    
    	Oh no!!! Here comes that erge to cry again... ;-)

    
    How about the Gordon Bell quote about Alpha....
    
      "Digital bet everything on Alpha, and lost"
    

    re. .6
    
    I don't think we have lost yet.  Our senior leadership team just could
    not figure how to win yet.  Alpha is an excellent products and the 
    demand is just growing.  Yes, we are losing money but it is not because
    of Alpha.  There are many discussions in this notes conference thus I
    will not discuss this topic.  One of my close relative is using Pentium
    PC, IBM/RS6000, HP and Alpha for Computer Integrated Manufacturing.  His 
    comments is Alpha outperforms the rest of world.  He is very good in
    OpenVMS, OSF/1, Unix, Ultrix, AIX, SCO/Unix and he doesn't see any
    advantage by using HP/UX rather than Alpha/OSF/1 to implement his
    distributed network application with ORACLE/SYBASE/Rdb.  He told me
    that he just could not understand why Digital's Alpha is still unknown 
    to the publics.  

    > Don't blame Alpha
    
    Nobody's blaming alpha.  They're blaming the people who make it.
    The days of our superior products selling themselves were over years
    ago.  People used to beat down DEC's door to buy stuff.  Those people
    were traditional DEC customers.  We've tried to expand into new
    markets using the old mentality, and the new or potential customers don't 
    know what we do, or what we have to offer.  We need exposure to the 
    average person.
    
    Lot's of our products are excellent, but they don't sell themselves
    anymore.  In the past, our customers tended to be technically oriented, 
    and knew a product was awesome and would buy it.  Those folks are
    keeping us afloat.  The new customers, or the ones who could
    potentially send lot's of money our way aren't for the most part 
    technical.  They look at a box and say "Hmmm... pentium.  Dan Rather
    said this is the fastest computer.  It says "Intel inside".  I'll
    buy it.  Alpha?  What's that?  A watch?
    
    I'm not screaming "sell things", and I'm not faulting sales.  You can't
    force people to buy stuff.  You can enlighten (potential) customers
    with information and provide a competitive solution to their needs
    and make obtaining this stuff easy for them.  Until we do this, we're
    in trouble.  I think you've seen several attempts to do this recently
    (sales channels, tv advertising, heavy advertising in publications,
    the branding program).
    
    MadMike

    
    Re Dan Rather.
    
    What's been the response of Corporate Marketing.  Surely they are the 
    people who would have been contacted, and if they weren't, i would like
    to think that they have bombarded the TV company with all sorts of
    info, so that next time Digital's name is mentioned.
    
    This all comes down to presentation, marketing and advertising. 
    
    Nige;

    Yeah, I saw that piece.. it was very clear that the battle was between
    PowerPC and x86, with note made that x86 may not be able to keep up
    it's steam. Also lots of (imho good) talk about how it's applications
    that make the difference, and people want to run what they have now
    (without even buying a new version of it).
    
    What stuck in my mind, though, was Cliff Stoll sounding, and looking,
    completely scatterbrained. Too bad, because he did say, roughly, "I've
    spent the last 5 years learning how to use the software I'm using. No
    matter how fast the CPU is, it still isn't worth learning to use new
    software!"
    
    ...tom

    There is interest among potential buyers to find out about ALPHA.  They
    would like to have a demo to compare ALPHA against PENTIUM, for
    example.  I met a professor from BU's Engineering School who would 
    like to know whom he can contact for such a demo.  Any suggestions?

    The manager for the Regional Demo Center (Northeast) name is Peter
    Georges, dtn 352-2473. He should be able to help you for in his region
    or point you to someone in your own region if different. I believe he
    is located in NYO.
    
    Dan

re Note 3085.12 by IAMOK::YENDER:

>     There is interest among potential buyers to find out about ALPHA.  They
>     would like to have a demo to compare ALPHA against PENTIUM, for
>     example.  I met a professor from BU's Engineering School who would 
>     like to know whom he can contact for such a demo.  Any suggestions?
  
        Remember that we have Alpha AXP systems on the internet that
        customers can connect to and run their own software on at no
        charge.

        Bob

    
    
    .14
    
    	You know that you have them, now we know that you have them
    	but....does the PUBLIC know you have them????? 
    
    
    	rth

>>               <<< Note 3085.6 by DIODE::CROWELL "Jon Crowell" >>>
>>                        -< EX VP of engineering speaks >-

    
>>    How about the Gordon Bell quote about Alpha....
    
>>      "Digital bet everything on Alpha, and lost"
    

    
    I think the beginning of the end started for DEC, er, Digital
    when Gordon left.
    
    We are in dire need of people of his caliber today.
    
    
    Publius

    Customer's don't know much about ALPHA.  Some of them hear about it,
    pick up the phone and call the customer support center.  Most of us
    don't know about it either.  We can't get one.  We don't know where to
    route the call but we could probably find out in a half an hour or
    so...

    A very recent edition of PC Magazine features benchmark results on
    various chips from PowerPC to Pentium etc.. Alpha was mentioned
    very briefly buried somewhere long into the article and was reported in
    a only a few of the tests. In the few tests that it appeared  it faired
    poorly compared to the others.  

    re .18
    not true.  The Alpha-powered Carrera Hercules won several of the
    tests (Picture Publisher, ProEngineer, Dhrystone) in the May 31st
    PC Mag review.  kb

    
    	We have the same question in Europe, during these kinds of show only
    	PowerPC and Pentium appear. I sent a mail to Bob, discussed with
    	managers about this pb (two months ago), but it seems that nothing
    	has changed. I heard that the advertising budget is "eaten" by the
    	salaries, 
    
    				_ Pierre _
      

    The popular press is less impressed with our CPU speed claims than with
    the volume claims of our competition.
    
    Until Digital is projecting AXP shipments greater than 1 million units
    per year, they will continue to completely ignore our technology as a
    niche player.
    
    Regarding side by side SYSTEM comparisons: (not chips and benchmarks)
    
    Until we can demo running real main-line PC applications at comparable
    speeds (or at least similar speeds at a lower user cost) on a PC with
    legacy applications, why would we expect a consumer to be interested in
    migrating to Alpha?  What applications would drive him to buy AXP
    because they run Much better under Windows NT than they do on a
    Pentium?
    
    Unless users have a driving need that only an AXP system can fulfill,
    we should expect most of them to stay with x86.

    The problem is that we don't know what "marketing" is.
    
    Our marketing people concentrate on internal forecasts, writing
    technical brochures, and coming up with "special incentive deals" each
    quarter to try to incent customers to buy their niche product.  That's
    only part of marketing (a very small part).
    
    Marketing doesn't mean just advertising, either.
    
    The key problem we've had is in completely ignoring or not recognizing
    the way that technology takes hold today.  It happens with a relative
    few analysts, pundits, and columnists in the trade journals.
    
    Our idea of selling to them is to have infrequent announcement events,
    or trade show events, or specially-arranged presentations.
    
    Nobody is "selling" to them on a personal basis.
    
    There are usually one or two columnists at each computer magazine who
    we should be developing a personal relationship with.  Our person
    should visit them regularly to talk about the industry trends, and
    where Digital fits into those trends.  Over time, you build
    credibility.  You bring them information they can use -- columnists are
    always hungry for the theme of their next column.  They need grist for
    the mill.
    
    We try to sell our customer executives this way:  build trust, meet
    regularly, explore issues.  Let's get smart about how the system works
    out there today:  it's not what you know, it's who you've been talking
    to lately over doughnuts.

    IBM has some nice ads in this week's traderags noting their shipment
    of over a half-million PowerPC chips. Remember now, the PowerPC group
    started when? Production started when? Customers got systems when?
    
    We have done an abysmal job of promoting Alpha technology, and an
    even worse job in getting systems out the door on time. We had a
    window of opportunity to take marketshare, and we blew it. Most of
    the analysts are saying that Alpha is just taking over installed VAX
    systems, not displacing any other vendor. Our overall marketshare
    is *still* decreasing.
    
    Geoff

    See also MR4SRV::MARKETING notes 207 and 215 for some info/discussion
    over Alpha market share and market concerns 
    
    
    re roelof

    The problem is that neither Alpha or the PowerPC chip run DOS
    applications as fast as Intel chips.  From the perspective of the
    general population of PC users, Alpha is a ho-hummer.

        Hi,
    
        He's a test for all that wonder why the Alpha is not as popular
        as the Pentium or PowerPC. Pick five computer stores in your area
        and call them and see how many have a Alpha system in the store.
    
        As a follow up question see if they have any Digital products at
        all.
    
        Try to go out and buy a Alpha system tonight! Like it or not the
        bulk of desktop systems are sold through the corner store.
    
        A good deal of Pentium and PowerPC systems are sold by mail,
        however the customer at that point is shopping for price, they 
        already know what they want and have seen several
        systems at the local store.
    
        My brother is in the market for a high end system, but to demo a
        Alpha system he needs to visit me here at the support center.
    
    
        Jim 

    This month's (Jun 94) issue of PC/Computing rates the top 200 hardware
    products. Sort of a good news/bad news issue as far as Digital is
    concerned. First the good:

    DECpc LPx 433dx is ranked #1 among 486/33 systems.
    
    DECpc LPx 466d2 is ranked #1 among 486/66 systems.

    Now for the bad. In the front of the issue, there's a "Radar Screen",
    sort of a "What's Hot, What's Not" column.

    What's Hot
    ----------

    PowerPC
    ClipperChip
    Internet
    Suites
    Grunge Fonts (no idea what they are)

    What's Not
    ----------

    Multiprocessing
    Alpha (blurb states that "NT was developed on DEC's Alpha. But with
	    Apple pumping PowerPC Macs out the door, Alpha's star is fading")

    
    So it goes.

    -Dom
    
    

    
    re.:              <<< Note 3085.27 by MIMS::GRAFT_J >>>
    
    	Your arguments let me think that Enrico Pesatori is the right man
    in the right place. I hope he will use his knowledge in selling PCs to
    sell Alphas. Some Alphas can be sold as we sell PCs. We just need to
    avoid our burocracy and to deliver in a shorter timeframe.
    �AA