San Jose, CA Ð NeXT went a long way toward reassuring restless developers in a closed briefing here in November.
The program included detailed sales plans, financial results, and product plans, but "no announcements or surprises," according to one attendee. The invitation-only event included 46 representatives from 30 third-party companies.
"The overall mood was conciliatory toward developers. They recognize that it is not enough to have custom apps, that they can't succeed without us," said one attendee who asked not to be named.
"We don't want to be a tools company. We sell an operating system, and operating systems need application software," said Ron Weissman, NeXT's director of corporate marketing, who spoke to NeXTWORLD prior to the meeting.
Other attendees had a generally favorable response to the meeting. "More than the specifics, I was impressed by the attitude of openness and candor," said one. "It is evident that NeXT is being run by a professional management team," said another.
The briefing featured presentations from NeXT senior executives and marketing managers, a panel discussion that included four third-party developers, and a two-hour feedback session.
According to Weissman, the two "tough questions of the day are the implications of SoftPC and how developers can align with NeXT's custom-application strategy." On the first issue, NeXT told the developers that it is important to support Windows applications, but it expects most customers to favor native applications because they can integrate with custom apps.
To better align with NeXT's strategy, developers were encouraged to make their applications extensible with APIs and object palettes, supplement their software revenues with related products and services, and form partnerships with customers.
Missing from the agenda was any discussion of NeXT's own plans for application software, except in a trial balloon from Steve Jobs, who speculated that NeXT might want to acquire one or more third-party developers in the future.