Market Share

[Ronald R Shiflet]

Kent,
	I enjoyed this post.  Thanks for your viewpoint.

Ron Shiflet

On Thu, 02 Jan 1997 12:26:30 -0600 Kent Swafford
<kswafford@earthlink.net> writes:
>     I enjoyed Ron Shiflet's post on VHS-BETA and Mac-DOS. I have a
>few comments concerning Dean Reyburn's choice of Mac as the platform
>for his CyberTuner.
>
>     If all business decisions need to be based on market share, I
>suppose we piano technicians should all be preparing for new careers
>in electronics since electronics receive such a higher percentage of
>consumers' entertainment dollars than do pianos. Obviously, not all
>good business decisions need be based upon market share.
>
>     I am speaking here as one who originally chose a beta VCR over
>VHS, and now has and uses both. Up until a year ago, my only
>computers were not MACs _or_ DOS, but Atari ST's. (I still use an
>Atari computer daily.) My kids play their video games not on a
>Nintendo, but on an Atari Jaguar, the 64 bit game machine that was
>first on the market in 1993. I _liked_ new Coke, OK? And I make my
>living in the small field of piano technology, not something more
>mainstream like dentistry or real estate sales. (Yuck!)
>
>     Dean's decision to develop CyberTuner for the Mac was a
>carefully thought-out business decision. Keep in mind that Dean is an
>accomplished DOS programmer, who found it difficult and complex to
>provide proper customer technical support for his DOS programs. He
>has said that it is much easier for him to provide technical support
>for the customers of his Mac programs. I hope I am not speaking too
>out of turn here, but Dean has reported that in the closing days of
>1996, as techs were looking for those final 1996 tax deductions, he
>had more orders for CyberTuner than his very small business could
>handle easily. RCT sales have exceeded projections.
>
>     CyberTuner is a fully operational, advanced visual tuning device
>that in many respects outperforms all other visual tuning devices and
>is available _now_ for those who are interested. As an example of
>RCT's advanced features, varying the stretch of a tuning according to
>the preferences of the piano technician is a basic capability of RCT,
>and is accomplished in seconds with a few mouse clicks. Explaining
>how to accomplish the same thing with an Accu-Tuner took a whole
>series of posts and the extraordinary brilliance of Jim Coleman, Sr.
>
>     It should be worth noting that the Power PC chip on which modern
>Macs are based was developed in part by IBM. Since IBM already has a
>stake in the PPC chips, there has been talk that IBM might build
>PPC-based notebook computers that run the Mac OS in addition to
>Windows. This might not happen, but if it does, it will render the
>Mac-Windows debate rather moot as it relates to CyberTuner.
>
>     The bottom line:  For me, it has been worth buying a Powerbook
>in order to run CyberTuner. I have submitted an article to the Piano
>Technicians Journal with much detail about CyberTuner. If there are
>any questions about the article (if it runs) and CyberTuner, feel
>free to ask here on the pianotech list.
>
>Kent Swafford
>