Re: AS/400 marketing Is it Needed -- MIDRANGE-L


>Aren't you the one who had the tag line 'Get OS/2 or Get Bent' ?
>What ever happened to that tag line?

Absolutely. I change tag lines over time and evolved to AS/400 ones.
However, my computer still runs OS/2. I notice that IBM keeps making large
OS/2 deals around the world (primarily in the banking community) and I
haven't had any incentive to remove the OS yet. 

>Hmm OS/2  Wasn't that the OS that had a Real 32 bit Arch. years before M$?
>Wasn't the OS that had REAL Preemptive multi-tasking before anyone else?
>Wasn't that the OS that was the first to have a launch pad?
>Wasn't that the OS that was the first to let you drop stuff on to the 
>desktop and run it without having it in a window?
>
>Gee,  with features like that it should have succeeded with out any
>advertising presence.  Especially against the wimpy, excuse the 
>competion had at the time.  I mean even WITHOUT articles being written
>about it by BYTE, COMPUTERWORLD, DATAMATION, etc. etc.  It should have
>killed Win3.1 and even Win95 when it came out on the merits of its 
>features alone right?  
>
>How did it Lose??????????  I mean anyone who made an Analytical decision
>back then(With all those Facts) would surely have chosen OS/2 right?
>
>Or could it be that;
>
>People Buy What They Want, Not What They Need.
>
>Make Them Want It and They will justify it themselves, even if they 
>have to make up the facts to do it.    
>
>If you don't believe that, you've never been in sales.

I thank you for your post. It was very helpful to have one that worked so
hard to make my points for me.

First, as you point out (and as I have been stating over and over), the
articles published by the trades is very important. The ads not so
important.

Second, it is amazing how little deductive reasoning is actually used when
people read the trades. I mean, certainly you have read the many articles
over time accusing Microsoft of monopolistic trade practices, right? And
you have read that computer vendors have stated that they were told by
Microsoft that if they shipped non-MS products (OS/2 wasn't the only
problem, remember DR-DOS and GEO?) that their cost for Windows would be
higher than if they didn't? Yet you still feel like guys like Packard Bell
would have been happy to pay an extra $50,000 or more per day to bundle
OS/2? 

Third, what thwarted OS/2 on the desktop? The massive number of Windows 95
ads? No, IBM spent more money launching Warp than Microsoft did Windows
95. However, MS was accompanied by three and half years of build up in the
press, article after article about what wonders would be in this product
when it was finally released, and a zillion ads about the Windows 95
compatible applications that would be there. I even recall an ad for a
"Windows 95 Compatible Hard Drive". Every product manufacturer helped
fluff Win95 in the hopes that they would ride the upgrade crest. Those
that did not were informed that they would not be able to advertise
"Windows Compatible" unless they produced a 32 bit version of their
product. A friend of mine was offered floor space at Microsoft trade
shows, however he first had to "front end" his product with a 32 bit frame
that called his 16 bit app. The only function this served was to make it
incompatible with Win3.1 (and OS/2 by the way).

>
>(For some background rent the movie 'HEAD OFFICE' (Rick Maranis, 
>Danny Devito, Jane Seymour, Eddie Albert, Judge Rhineholt, etc.)
>It's like DILBERT the movie.)

I cannot say that I think highly of someone who judges life through
movies. I have seen Head Office (and first saw it under the title Inc.)
and I enjoyed the movie. 


Chris Rehm
Mr.AS400@ibm.net
You have to ask yourself, "How often can I afford to be unexpectedly out of 
business?" 
Get an AS/400.
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