ANNOUNCEMENT HIGHLIGHTS On July 29th Sun introduced its first X terminal, the SPARCclassic X 1. SPARCclassic X Sun's new X terminal will based on Sun's SPARCclassic workstation. It will use the CLASSIC packaging, monitors, RAM, and CPU board. Increased graphics performance is available for another $500. $2545 (quantity 1 nondiscountable) - 15" Colour (1024x768), 4M RAM 2. SPARCclassic X Upgrade to SPARCclassic Workstation Sun's new X terminal will be upgradeable to a SPARCclassic through a user installable upgrade. Add 8 or 16MB memory, NVRAM, 695M disk and a Solaris RTU through an upgrade kit. $2550 (quantity 1 nondiscountable). The objective of this move seems to be to turn X terminal customers into Sun workstation customers. ____________________________________________________________ Model# SPARC SPARC HP X terminal GX terminal ------------------------------------------------------------ Base Config 15"Colour 16"Color 15"Color 4M RAM 8M RAM 4M RAM Base Cost $2545 $5045 $2495 (net) (net) (fully discountable) -------------------------------------------------------------- BootHost Solaris 2.1 Solaris 2.1 HPUX, SunOS (only) (only) AIX, SCO ------------------------------------------------------------- Monitors 1024x768 15"Colour 15"Colour 14,15"color 1280x1024 17,19"color 19" gray 1152x900 16",19" Colour 16",19" Colour N/A 1152x900 19"Greyscale N/A N/A -------------------------------------------------------------- Performance Xstones 30k 103k 93k ------------------------------------------------------------ Local Clients olwm olwm twm, mwm, HPVUE/RX hpterm,xterm -------------------------------------------------------------- Warranty 1 year return to depot 1 year on site -------------------------------------------------------------- ANNOUNCEMENT STRENGTHS ====================== 1. Sun will gain instant marketshare because this is its first X terminal product. 2. Sun will stress the reasons for upgrading to a workstation. This will be focused around the assumption that all users really want a workstation if only they could afford one. 3. Use of microSPARC chip to drive Sun's X terminal is an attempt to broaden SPARCs overall appeal. Sun will try to strengthen Sun's overall messaging. ANNOUNCEMENT WEAKENESSES ======================== 1. Sun's upgrade strategy suits Sun - not customers ------------------------------------------------ HP has had an X terminal to workstation upgrade for years. This upgrade has not proved popular for the following reasons: . upgrading X terminals to workstations is a major task of rearchitecting the network . X terminal users typically upgrade their server not their desktop . X terminal users do not want to upgrade a poorly performing X terminal to a poorly performing workstation (Sun's SPARCclassic) . X terminal users have already rejected workstations as their desktop. They have bought X terminals because of the specific benefits they offer - such as centralized system administration, low cost per seat, workstation "look and feel", etc. 2. Sun's X terminal offering is not a competitive, world class X terminal ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The SPARCclassic has the following attributes: . based on unpopular, underpowered Classic workstation . Sun does not approach X performance leadership . Sun does not approach true street pricing for X terminals . Sun's non-discountable price is not attractive to customers or resellers . no new R&D has been used in its design 3. Sun still has no real commitment to X terminals: ------------------------------------------------- Open Systems Today, July 19 1993 quotes Jay Puri, a Sun Marketing vice president: "The perfect omputing environment would not include X terminals. The reality is that there is a big difference between doing what is ideal and doing what is pragmatic. Users have to do what is pragmatic." Furthermore, by leveraging the Classic workstation design, Sun has not done any new R&D to develop a competitive X terminal product. In fact, we suspect that this may be move to reduce excess inventories of the otherwise unpopular Classic workstation. 4. This announcement is only focused on Sun's installed base --------------------------------------------------------- There is no boothost support for heterogenous servers. Moreover Sun's own largest installed base - the Solaris 1.1 (SunOS 4.1.3) servers - are not supported. HP X terminals boot from SunOS, as well as HP-UX, AIX, and SCO. This announcement will primarily affect NCD and TEK where they are predominant in Sun accounts and will NOT result in lost sales for HP. NET/NET: Sun has ignored the fast growing X terminal marketplace. Even with this announcement, Sun's committment to X terminals remains weak. This announcement will hurt NCD and TEK in marketshare, however will help grow the overall X terminal market. This will be a significant opportunity for the HP 700/RX stations. To receive more information on the HP 700/RX family of X stations send an HPDesk message to the Panacom Hotline.