IIRC it was the fastest workstation available for under $5k in 1990 (around 15 mips, I think?). You have to remember what market they thought they were selling to -- it was meant to be a high-end personal workstation, not an industrial machine. Sun and SGI machines started at around $10k and went up from there.
They were sold, among other places, in college bookstores, right beside the Mac and Windows machines. I was a campus consultant and sold a number of them - a lot of my job was hanging out in the bookstore and talking to potential buyers. I have no idea how one went about buying a Sun, but they certainly didn't bother much with individual sales.
So it's competition was the higher end of the Mac line and a bit up from that, really. Turned out there was never much of a market for personal workstations, hence the low sales numbers.
I came into a bit of money in college and decided to buy a Sun workstation.
You are correct - they didn’t know how to fulfill individual sales. The box was delivered to a LTL freight crossdock, and I got a call from a dispatcher to come pick the thing up. I had to drive to the industrial part of town. A bemused guy helped me get the carton down and remove the boxes, then I got to lug thing across the yard.
It was a fun thing to have amongst my nerd friends. I ended up selling it at a nice profit because I was willing to ship it anywhere. The monitor i sold at a loss to a graduate student.
They were sold, among other places, in college bookstores, right beside the Mac and Windows machines. I was a campus consultant and sold a number of them - a lot of my job was hanging out in the bookstore and talking to potential buyers. I have no idea how one went about buying a Sun, but they certainly didn't bother much with individual sales.
So it's competition was the higher end of the Mac line and a bit up from that, really. Turned out there was never much of a market for personal workstations, hence the low sales numbers.