Redwood City Ð Citing a strong initial response to its NEXTSTEP Evaluation Kit offer, NeXT extended the $299 promotion through the end of September and launched an extensive direct-mail campaign to further stimulate sales.
Although NeXT declined to give specific sales figures, spokeswoman Karen Logsdon said the response to the offer has been "tremendous. We're very pleased." The extension will further encourage users to "experience the benefits of building client-server applications using NEXTSTEP's object-oriented technology firsthand," she said.
Originally slated to be available only until July 31, the kit contains full implementations of both the user and developer versions of NEXTSTEP 3.1 for Intel, complete with user documentation and a developer CD-ROM with reusable objects and visual application-construction tools. A coupon to purchase developer technical documentation for $133.50, about 50 percent off the retail price, is also included.
The Evaluation Kit does not include free upgrades to Release 3.2 for Intel, which will ship sometime in the fall. To upgrade, users must purchase the regularly priced versions, which are $795 for the user version and $1995 for the developer version. The offer is limited to one copy per customer.
NeXT's promotion on the Evaluation Kit, which also includes a book on NEXTSTEP programming, a video, and a disk with sample software, was extended in order to provide more users the opportunity to try the Intel version.
In July, NeXT began a direct-mail campaign in support of the promotion. Mailings went out to 125,000 target customers, including a customer list supplied by software distributor Ingram.
The kit is available from NeXT by calling 800/TRY-NeXT.