RE: ROCHESTER PUSHES BACK 2000 ANNOUNCE DATE

[Carl Friedberg <friedberg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm stunned by the negative psychology behind this style of thought.
Personally I don't expect the world to collapse on 1/1/0, and I don't know
anyone else who is expecting significant disasters.

Why would IBM respond in this negative fashion? Suppose they introduce new
hardware on 1/1/0 and no one orders it until February 29th? Delivery is
normally far beyond annouce, with new products, so I don't see what is to be
gained by slipping the announcement. It just adds to the mystique of the
year 2000 problem. And, it encourages people who might order for earlier
delivery, to delay any hardware purchases. Why would you order something
which is already obsolete, knowing that IBM is putting off their new product
announcements? Too bad.

Is this part of an industry pattern? Are other IBM product lines holding
back new hardware, or software, until the second half of 2000? I am not
aware of this as a general pattern, at least not yet.

Carl Friedberg, carl@comets.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Glenn Ericson [mailto:Glenn-Ericson@att.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 1999 5:12 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: ROCHESTER PUSHES BACK 2000 ANNOUNCE DATE


Was Feb 00 


ROCHESTER PUSHES BACK 2000 ANNOUNCE DATE 
http://www.news400.com/nwn/StoryBuild.cfm?ID=908 
If you're expecting Rochester to announce new AS/400 hardware and 
OS/400 software this spring, don't hold your breath. Big Blue has 
pushed back the release date for its hardware refresh and OS/400 
upgrade - IBM hasn't yet decided whether it should be called "V4R5" 
or "V5R1" - to the second half of the year to give folks a breather 
from Y2K. 


Many shops have gone into a Y2K lockdown, analysts say, and don't 
plan to buy any new hardware until well into the new year. If these 
shops have to deal with unresolved Y2K problems and roll out their 
contingency plans, upgrading their AS/400s will be the last thing on 
their minds. So Rochester decided that it would be poor timing to 
launch new hardware upgrades and operating systems until after any 
Y2K fallout has settled down and shops can start thinking about 
investing in new technology. 


"This 2000 thing has a lot of people concerned," says Jennifer Clark, 
the AS/400's technology marketing manager, "so why should we be a 
part of the problem?" 
_______________ 



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