Through the end of March, direct accounts and resellers in all channels in North America will be able to purchase machines configured with 16MB of RAM and a 105MB hard disk for at least 10 percent less than the current list price of $7999. Some outlets are foregoing some of their own margins to offer even greater reductions.
The rationale of the promotion is to broaden NeXTstep's base and bring in more entry-level users, according to Erna Arneson, NeXT's director of channel sales. The timing could also be related to inventory levels of the older 25MHz machines, given the recent shipment of NeXT's new Turbo line, based on a 33MHz version of the chip.
NeXT has always offered promotions, but this one has a more direct price impact than most others, such as last year's bundling of Lotus Improv. It is also the first effort to work across all channels, including direct corporate, government, higher education, VAR, and dealer channels.