IBM Marketing (was How does ....)

This is getting so far off the MI topic that this will be my last post but I
couldn't let this pass.

 >> Maybe products line INTBOOST, and Fast400 will cause IBM to change their
marketing procedures so we can get the cost down,

First of all let me say that I'm not getting at anyone in particular, but
sometimes I think people think of IBM as a charity.

They may do so.  But I wish a few people would wake up to the fact that they
_did_ get the cost down.  That is how we came to have the server models and
the so-called interactive tax!!  Look at the price performance curve on the
boxes over the years and you'll see.  I personally think they went overboard
in the current pricing structure, but unlike many people here I actually
recognize that IBM needs to make a profit!  When someone sells a PC server
they have mostly a hardware expense to contend with.  With iSeries, they
have hardware, micro code, the OS, all the other software that everyone has
come to expect for free, etc. etc.  Do they gouge in some areas?  Of course.
Could they bring the price of all the boxes down to the level of the
non-interactive or Domino boxes?  Of course not.  Rochester would be closed
inside a month. There is no way in a million years that they sell enough
extra boxes at that price to make up the deficit.

The sooner we all realize the reality of the potential market space they are
dealing with and start asking for realistic pricing action the more likely
we are to get IMO.

Jon Paris
Partner400