Date:         Wed, 22 Oct 1997 16:12:33 -0700
Reply-To:     Barry Fass-Holmes <barryfh@mail.sandi.net>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Barry Fass-Holmes <barryfh@MAIL.SANDI.NET>
Subject:      Re: SPSS for the Macintosh
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-Ascii"

Calzavara, Carolyn wrote:
>We are in an uncomfortable position of having to make a tradeoff between
>a very important customer group and financial responsibility.
Now finger-pointing will begin:
 
>Unfortunately, the Macintosh market is in a state of flux due to Apple's
>woes.  Apple computer has been losing market share and posting regular
>quarterly losses since the onslaught of Windows 95 began in the fall of
>1995.
Yet, despite these events, Adobe managed to reap increased profits from
their Macintosh products (see MacWeek or MacWorld's web sites for the
facts). Symantec just reported having sold a whopping 300,000 units of Norton
Utilities for Macintosh in the most recent quarter.
 
Other Mac developers, such as Connectix, Aladdin, and DataViz, somehow or
other manage to continue developing, selling, and *profitting* from their
Mac products.
 
>We tried hard to find a balance between financial responsibility and
>giving you, our customers, what you want.
This statement is too much!
 
>Our desire at SPSS Inc. is to deliver the highest quality software
>products to our customers.  This is becoming increasingly difficult on
>the Macintosh platform for three simple reasons:  1) Apple's shrinking
>market share presents less of a base from which to fund Mac development,
>2) the pool of experienced Mac development resources is shrinking as
>people and companies move into higher growth areas, and 3) development
>tools for porting Windows products to the Macintosh do not adequately
>translate advanced Windows functionality such as OLE2 and other
>technology which we rely on in our development.
See above responses.
 
>After a very careful analysis of the costs, real and opportunity, and
>revenue, we decided that building a new Macintosh product from the
>ground-up just is not practical.
Even Microsoft had recommitted to developing *native* Mac products.
 
>Therefore, SPSS 6.1 for the Macintosh will continue as the shipping
>version, and no new development will be undertaken in the foreseeable
>future.
How about taking *responsibility* for the consequences of this decision?
 
Barry Fass-Holmes