RE: Cost of 4.2

[John Bussert <jbussert@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I hope your right on the promotion - it would be nice to see IBM actually 
play marketing and sales games like the rest of the world.  I will wait 
with bated breath for the announcement.

John Bussert
jbussert@stecnet.com
Swift Technologies, Inc.
847-289-8339

-----Original Message-----
From:   mcrump@ballfoster.com [SMTP:mcrump@ballfoster.com]
Sent:   Tuesday, March 10, 1998 6:01 AM
To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject:        Re: Cost of 4.2




>Is it just me, or is IBM trying to NOT have people upgrade to 4.2.  Many
>customers just went to 4.1 and now 4.2 is out.  With a pretty good sized
>charge to go to it.  Even in the developers program there is a better than
>2.5K charge.  That is pretty steep, especially when you know 4.3 will be
>out before the end of the year.

Well, hold onto your hats.  As I indicated late last week, IBM is working
on a promotion that should reduce the charges dramatically.  It is in the
works and all the details are not known and it is also possible that it
does not become a reality.

We should know within 7 to 10 days.  The promotion would allow most
or all of the V4R2 LPP's to be picked up at no charge.  I've heard two
iterations of the plan: 1.) those that installed prior to the 2/10 announc-
ment would qualify or 2.) those that upgrade to V4R2 prior to 9/98.

Best thing I can say at this point is to wait a little bit and see what
happens.  I've heard this from an IBMer, a business partner, and
I understand that the Insider Weekly has something on this topic
this week.  So, I would say it is definitely in the works but it is best
thought of 'subject to change or rejection'.

For me this is great news and shows that IBM has some
sensitivity.  I don't know about you but I did budget for V4R2 in 1998
by using 20% of the list price for all products not upgraded in V4R1.
To my suprise IBM used around 50-60% of list price.  It blew my
budget out of the water.  I was looking at $100,000 for 4 machines
and had budgeted $40,000!

Michael Crump
Technical Projects Leader
Ball-Foster Glass Container Corp.





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