Quark lost the order for JMC at SJSU


Abstract: In a previous post I noted that Quark's upgrade pricing was an obstacle for higher education institutions, especially as they migrate to mobile computing technologies for their students. Here is a real world example of how this has hurt Quark and in the long term threatens their industry dominance.

The School of Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC) at San Jose State University bought some new Macs that require Mac OS X booting. Faculty at JMC wanted to buy two copies of Quark 6 for these machines, and to evaluate the new version of the product in a production environment. JMC is a long term Quark customer, with about 140 licenses of older Quark versions. There are about 800 students that take classes in the school. Many of these students, after graduation, go on to positions of influence in industry at major newspapers, magazines and other publications.
In my opinion, you would think Quark would want to take care of this customer. But, Quark's sales rep would only allow the school the best educational pricing if the school ordered eight copies. This was six licenses more than the school needed or wanted to buy. The school placed the order anyway, then cancelled it.

Posted: Sun - November 2, 2003 at 10:55 AM      

©