Their lack of direct marketing via radio and TV was a handicap. However, KO felt the product being marketed was a technical one for professionals and not directed at hobbiests. Mostly prose but not completely true. The cost for a Robin, Rainbow or PRO was consistant with the time for a competeing system with similar hardware, software and quality. Of course that was the early 80s. Reality was much more complex than the story of mice and traps. DEC suffered from a complex product, limited marketing and a vision that was right for the industry as it was (60s, 70s and early 80s) and not was it is (for 1987 on). As a result DEC was holding facilities like PNO, WFO and others complete with trained personell and nothing for them to do quite literally. At the same time engineering and marketing groups were sending things overseas for cost reasons. It didn't take a brain surgeon to see that overhead was way out of line as there were no layoffs until Palmer appeared. Also over the years there were what I called "stupid product decisions". My favorite is the LA75, $700 printer that TEC sold for $350 at local stores. Sure DEC improved it, but it was costly. Other were monsters like the VAX9000, fast, powerful and expensive. It was quickly replaced by the cheaper 6000 series. Older projects like the PRO, sold maybe 40,000 units against a plan that was only scaled for 30,000! If that sounds bad it was declared a failure. Exceeded plan and failed! An example of short sightedness as to the size of the market. Other examples are infamous. I got the dubious honor of participating in just a few. DEC was a engineering, a technology and service company. They did not do a good job at marketing. It was mismanagemant of costs would end a good run. I used to remind people and they thought me nuts. If you want to annoy the customer ship junk. If you really want to become unforgetable in the customers eyes, go out of business. The former they can forgive if you fix it, the latter is unforgiveable as your product is part of their business. DEC came close to unforgiveable, save for Compaq being there. Allison

Their lack of direct marketing via radio and TV was a handicap. However, KO felt the product being marketed was a technical one for professionals and not directed at hobbiests. Mostly prose but not completely true. The cost for a Robin, Rainbow or PRO was consistant with the time for a competeing system with similar hardware, software and quality. Of course that was the early 80s. Reality was much more complex than the story of mice and traps. DEC suffered from a complex product, limited marketing and a vision that was right for the industry as it was (60s, 70s and early 80s) and not was it is (for 1987 on). As a result DEC was holding facilities like PNO, WFO and others complete with trained personell and nothing for them to do quite literally. At the same time engineering and marketing groups were sending things overseas for cost reasons. It didn't take a brain surgeon to see that overhead was way out of line as there were no layoffs until Palmer appeared. Also over the years there were what I called "stupid product decisions". My favorite is the LA75, $700 printer that TEC sold for $350 at local stores. Sure DEC improved it, but it was costly. Other were monsters like the VAX9000, fast, powerful and expensive. It was quickly replaced by the cheaper 6000 series. Older projects like the PRO, sold maybe 40,000 units against a plan that was only scaled for 30,000! If that sounds bad it was declared a failure. Exceeded plan and failed! An example of short sightedness as to the size of the market. Other examples are infamous. I got the dubious honor of participating in just a few. DEC was a engineering, a technology and service company. They did not do a good job at marketing. It was mismanagemant of costs would end a good run. I used to remind people and they thought me nuts. If you want to annoy the customer ship junk. If you really want to become unforgetable in the customers eyes, go out of business. The former they can forgive if you fix it, the latter is unforgiveable as your product is part of their business. DEC came close to unforgiveable, save for Compaq being there. Allison