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Technology Stocks : Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Larry Brew who wrote (3984)	1/12/1998 5:49:00 PM
From: Mathon Dabasir	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14451

>>This must be the 1st time someone went after SGI.<< Have another brew Larry! Mathon

To: Larry Brew who wrote (3984)	1/13/1998 9:41:00 PM
From: Jim Davison	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14451

Wow, Sun buys 8 pages in today's WSJ to introduce "Darwin" -- the low-cost $3000 UNIX workstation that runs Windows and "whips SGI's workstations at 1/3 the price." This is exactly the sort of slick advertising format that I keep wishing SGI's marketing could match. And it's exactly the product that I kept wishing SGI would introduce. I quote from the advertisement: IT LOOKS LIKE A PC. FEELS LIKE A PC. SMELLS LIKE A PC (OK, ENOUGH ABOUT IT'S WEAK POINTS) INTRODUCING DARWIN. There's been a major evolutionary leap over all lower forms of workstations. Darwin. A full-fledged SUN (TM) workstation with an up to 3000 MHz processor, no less) that lets you run all your favorite PC apps. All while delivering the power, scalablility, networkability, and proven robust UltraSPARC(TM)/Solaris(TM) performance you've come to expect from SUN. And best of all, for the price of a PC running Microsoft Windows NT -- it starts at just $2,995 (which we think you'll agree, isn't just evolutionary, but fantastic.) With Darwin, you can run heavy-duty technical applications one moment, then craft a presentation using Microsoft Office (TM) the next. What's more, Elite3D graphics will blow away a similar SGI machine at less than a third of the cost. (Which really ought to cause a buzz among creative types.) And since Darwin is binary compatible, it's a perfect enter point to our full line of Sun systems (which, with up to 64 processors, can expand to meet anyone's need). et cetera. They also note the following graphics benchmarks: Sun Ultra 10 ($12,495) CDRS Benchmark 66 SGI Octane ($45,495) CDRS Benchmark 48.6 Sun Ultra 60 CDRS Benchmark 125.6 SGI Onyx CDRS Benchmark 91.5 (prices not listed) Now my analysis: 1) A commercial $3000 UNIX product (without monitor) produces slim margins for a nitch that nobody is sure will succeed -- head-on competition with "Wintel." Give SUNW credit for guts. 2) Give SUNW credit for brains too. They hedged their UNIX bets by offering a "Softwindows" program along with the machine. Of course, SGI includes SoftWindows95(TM) this with the $5902 O2 workstation: ( sgi.com ) although SGI never really exploited this marketing angle like they should have. 3) This ad was remarkable in it way it aggressively attacked SGI's business. Nobody knows SGI better than its competitors, and I can't see SUN investing in this big ad unless there was a lot of SGI business left to steal. Maybe sales are better than we thought? --JD