[Beowulf] SGI and Sun: In Memoriam

[Kilian CAVALOTTI]

On Wednesday 01 April 2009 17:48:56 you wrote:
> A point I
> didn't make in my blog post on this stuff is that the academic side,
> while a nice market to play in, isn't terribly profitable.  You have to
> give "killer" discounts to play in many cases.  Which in the case of a
> low margin commodity business, is, in a real sense, a killer.

But aren't those killer discounts paid back in image building and 
advertisement savings? It would make sense for companies to invest in some 
academic partnerships/projects, to make the buzz, and build up an image of 
performance, reliability and trust. Something along the lines of: "see, this 
prestigious university/institution is using that company's product line, and 
they must know what they're talking about, so I should do it too."

That seems to me like a short-term profitability loss, but a long-term gain 
since it could drive more sales.

Cheers,
-- 
Kilian