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Subject: Re: The Novag Star Sapphire isn't available yet...

Author: allan johnson

Date: 03:08:21 10/22/01

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On October 21, 2001 at 13:37:32, Steven Schwartz wrote:

>On October 21, 2001 at 03:28:58, allan johnson wrote:
>
>>On October 20, 2001 at 17:53:47, Steven Schwartz wrote:
>>
>>>On October 20, 2001 at 15:09:34, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>
>>>>On October 20, 2001 at 11:34:38, Steven Schwartz wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On October 20, 2001 at 08:39:57, O. Veli wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On October 19, 2001 at 10:46:34, Steven Schwartz wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Where did they get Star Sapphires? The chips to manufacture them
>>>>>>>will not be available till late December, and product won't be
>>>>>>>available until January?
>>>>>>>http://www.icdchess.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?page=8/80-N13.html&item=80-N13&cart_id=2600247.17861
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  Is there any concrete evidence for this? Star Sapphire was supposed to come ou
>>>>>>t in Summer 2000, then Christmas 2000, and now January 2001. Wasn't Novag
>>>>>>renamed as Perfect Technologies? I look forward to this product, but have no
>>>>>>hope of seeing it in my hands.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>The chips were supposed to be available in early November so that
>>>>>the product would be available for Christmas. However, we received
>>>>>word about a week ago that the chips were delayed until late Decmeber.
>>>>>So, January delivery looks good. However, we have learned from 23 years
>>>>>in this business that new product is delayed more than it is on time.
>>>>>We will know for certain that they are here when they get here. But
>>>>>right now January is as good a guess as any.
>>>>>Steve (ICD/Your Move Chess & Games)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I don't want to sound harsh, but in my opinion this product is dead before it is
>>>>born: you can just buy a PDA and download a good chess program for it and you
>>>>get a better combination than the Star Sapphire.
>>>>
>>>>Even if the unit is cheaper than a PDA of the same speed at this time, it's just
>>>>a matter of months before PDAs are cheaper and faster. And naturally they are
>>>>more flexible.
>>>>
>>>>If this product had been released when it was first announced, something like 2
>>>>years ago, it would have been a winner. But 2002 is too late. I don't understand
>>>>why investors would put money in this anymore (unless they are blind).
>>>>
>>>>I must certainly be missing some piece of important information about the unit.
>>>>But what?
>>>>    Christophe
>>>
>>>
>>>Having sold $10,000 and $6,000 and $2,000 and $1,000 chess computers
>>>in pretty high numbers in the past, I can never predict what our
>>>customers will and will not like. We have started taking pre-orders
>>>for the computer. I will let you know in a month or two just how
>>>successful or unsuccessful a venture it is going to be.
>>>
>>>I think the success of failure of the Star Sapphire and Star Diamond
>>>will be a pretty good predictor of whether the stand-alone high end chess
>>>computer market will ever attract a sizeable number of customers again. It
>>>should be interesting.
>>>
>>>Steve (ICD/Your Move Chess & Games)
>> Steve: I have 3 stand alone chess computers the best being the Risc 1.How
>>much better will the Star Saphire be than the Risc1?
>>Al
>
>
>Al,
>I do not know  what a Risc 1 is. There has never been a commercial
>machine in in the U.S. called by that name. There must be another name.
>Who made it?
>Steve (ICD/Your Move Chess & Games)

 Sorry Steve for being unclear.I'm referring to the Mephisto Risc 1 MB.
 Al



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