Shuffling down the concourse in the opposite direction were four jet-lagged Westerners. Sullivan ducked behind a column, then watched as Steve Jobs, Peter van Cuylenburg, Marcel Gani, and Tom Lavelle collected their bags and piled into a limousine. Not yet having an informant placed at a high level inside Canon (as Canon has had for the past nine months inside NeXT), Sullivan was unable to learn exactly what Dr. Yamaji had to say to the Redwood City Canon fodder. But it undoubtedly wasn't an entirely pleasant meeting.
Sources at NeXT said the team had been summoned to Japan for emergency consultations, though the official story was along the lines of a regularly scheduled performance review. If the sources are right, you can assume that topics like management structure and the fate of the factory were high on the agenda. On the other side, NeXT's fourth-quarter operating profit argued for continued tolerance. As he boarded his plane for his next stopover in Taipei, Sullivan expected no immediate canonical moves. Stay tuned.
On the home front, attention has turned to NeXT-WORLD Expo. With the date set, NeXT and third parties have a target for their development and marketing schedules. HSD, for example, is planning to unveil a major upgrade to OCR Servant and a solution for dictaphone use with a NeXT.
Meanwhile, there is some grumbling among developers about the cost of booth space (a few even kicked around the notion of an anti-Expo), but there is a lot more jockeying for position on the show floor. Apparently, Steve himself has shown great interest in the design of booths adjacent to the NeXT booth (big) and particularly the size of those exhibits (not as big as NeXT's.) Some developers aren't happy about the restrictions, seeing it as another sign of declining support for NeXT's third-party partners.
A case in point is the situation of loaner machines for NeXTSTEP '486 development. With support for various hardware configurations still in flux, most developers need to borrow a machine from NeXT to recompile and debug their '486 ports. NeXT has loaner units available for its larger customer sites, which can then evaluate their custom-apps strategies, but has zero machines available for loan to commercial software developers.
The saga of the integration contract with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department continues. The latest development is that Dolphin Software and TRW won a contract rumored in the half-million-dollar range. Dolphin has already opened an office in Los Angeles and the entire team has moved quickly to begin work on the project.
Is the NeXT sales job getting easier? Meijer Corporation, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, recently called NeXT from out of the blue to place a sizable order of NeXT workstations for use in its Meijer Thrifty Acres stores. It had evaluated the alternatives and selected NeXT technology for its needs Ð all without benefit of any NeXT sales people or systems engineers. Sullivan thinks they deserve a discount.
In housekeeping news this month, Steve's favorite CIO, Paul Straussman, godfather of NeXT's operational-productivity strategy, resigned his post as information technology chief at the Pentagon. Insiders said he stepped aside to allow Clinton's national-security team to develop its own information strategy. Even closer to home, a certain colonel who has been instrumental in NeXT's dealings with the government has also retired from public service. He will keep his hand in the community with various consulting projects for NeXT.
Like every other NeXT-community insider, Sullivan was shocked by news of the feud between NeXT and NeXTWORLD. Concerned for the longevity of his column, Sullivan checked his sources at megapublisher IDG and was relieved to learn that all systems are still go for the harried team of loyalists at NeXTWORLD. The parties are working in concert on NeXTWORLD Expo and IDG is standing behind the magazine. Sully's column will continue to have a home, and he will continue to have a few things to say as events unfold during 1993 and beyond.
Coffee is a passion in San Francisco, so you'll want to be seen drinking the right beverage from the right cup during your NeXTWORLD Expo visit. Earn your Lt. Sullivan coffee mug today by sharing your insider knowledge. Write him at sullivan@nextworld.com or leave a message at 415/ 978-3374 (voice mail).