Steve Jobs - NeXT marketing strategy video 1991

Summary

Steve Jobs leads a chalk talk analyzing their target customer for workstations. He discovers a professional workstation market emerging beyond just scientists and engineers. This market will grow rapidly to 300,000 units in 2 years. Sun dominates but Next can compete on custom apps, productivity apps, and interpersonal computing. By getting developers to experience Next's superior environment, and showing Next's advantage in apps and collaboration, they can beat Sun for every sale as customers upgrade from PCs and mainframes.

Takeaways

• 😀 Next is targeting professional workstation users beyond just engineers/scientists
• 👥 The pro workstation market will grow from 50K units (1990) to 300K units by 1992
• 💡 Custom applications are the main driver for pro workstation adoption
• 📈 Next has big advantages over Sun in development environment, productivity apps, and interpersonal computing
• 🎯 Next should focus marketing on convincing potential customers to try its software camp
• 🔍 Refining the definition of the pro workstation market and what's important to customers is key
• 💰 Capturing 50% share of the pro workstation market would equal 50K unit sales for Next
• ☝️ Sun is currently the dominant player in pro workstations with ~80% share
• 🤝 Sun helps grow the overall pro workstation market which helps Next
• 💬 Steve Jobs wants feedback on the info and this format of communication

Q & A

What market is Steve Jobs referring to as the 'professional workstation' market?

Steve Jobs is referring to professionals who are not scientists or engineers but want the power of workstations for applications like publishing, medical, database, higher education, legal etc.

Why does Steve Jobs believe this professional workstation market will grow rapidly?

Steve believes it will grow rapidly because PC and Mac owners will upgrade seeking more sophisticated networking and development environments, and mainframe users will shift applications to powerful desktop workstations.

What are the 3 main reasons driving people to the professional workstation market?

The main reasons are: 1) Need to develop custom applications 2) Desire for great productivity apps 3) Improving collaboration through interpersonal computing

Why does Steve Jobs consider Sun to be Next's main competitor?

Sun has an 80% market share in the emerging professional workstation market that Next is targeting, so they are positioned as the dominant player that Next has to beat.

What 3 strengths does Jobs cite as Next's advantages over Sun?

Next's superior 1) development environment 2) productivity apps and 3) capabilities for interpersonal computing and collaboration.

What does Jobs want the software camps used for regarding developers?

He wants Next to bring more of their customers' developers through the software camps to experience and be impressed by Next's development environment.

Why can't PCs and Macs fulfill professional workstation needs?

They lack sophisticated networking, multitasking, and database capabilities needed for custom applications and collaboration.

Who is the target customer for Next workstations based on the script?

Professionals beyond just scientists and engineers - those in publishing, medical, legal, higher education etc. needing custom apps and collaboration.

What distribution channels will Next use to reach customers?

The script does not provide details on Next's distribution channels.

What insights did Jobs gain from meeting with customers recently?

Key insights on reasons driving demand for professional workstations and Next's specific strengths vs. Sun in serving customer needs.