RE: IBM Marketing (was How does ....) -- MI400

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Thank you, Jon.  You have said what I basically wanted to say, but
didn't know exactly how.

The bottom line, folks, and I realize that some may disagree, but if IBM
is forced to raise prices in order to maintain revenue because of CFINT
"cheater" apps like FAST400 (assuming they become popular), who do you
think is going to be hurt?  IMO, the entire AS/400 community is at risk,
because IBM will lose its customers at the low-to-middle end because the
iSeries systems they need will become priced uncompetitively.  In the
end, if IBM does nothing to stop CFINT cheater apps, the iSeries will
die off.

What about the so-called IBM-blessed CFINT killer that we know as
client-server (aka Joe Pluta's solution, as one example)?  Maybe the
cost to IBM is having to support 5250, and maybe that is a huge cost
that can be shed when 5250 ceasts to exist.  Even if that is not a
reasonable statement, IBM has made it clear what the future is and is
not.  C/S is the future and 5250 is not.

Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952
D.Bale@Handleman.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jon Paris [SMTP:Jon.Paris@Partner400.com]
> Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 10:35 AM
> To:   mi400@midrange.com
> Subject:      [MI400] 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