[RPGIV] AS/400 is dead long live iSeries? (fwd) -- MIDRANGE-L



UH, this warrants cross posting...


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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 23:23:08 -0500
From: "cozzi@rpgiv.com" <cozzi@rpgiv.com>
Reply-To: RPGIV@yahoogroups.com
To: "rpgiv@yahoogroups.com" <rpgiv@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [RPGIV] AS/400 is dead long live iSeries?

Nobody owes this platform more than me. I've paid for 2 kids to go through 
college, and my mortgage for nearly 20 years on System/38, then AS/400 and now 
iSeries architecture.

But I feel like its the end of the road. Time to go on to something else.

I don't believe this box has much of a future beyond the current install base. 
Granted I like it as a webserve, and like it for traditional business 
applications, and right now, IBM has a great advantage, people are getting 
tired of the Microsoft bug-and-ship releases of Windows. 

But our problem is that IBM doesn't know how to market. They do know how to do 
market research, but have little ability to make one product stand out over and 
above the others. Its kind of like having 4 children with different skills and 
abilities, and someone comes to you, as the parent, and asks you which one 
would be right for this particular job. The proud parents say "All of them."  
But you, as the employer, only need one, so you ask again, which one? And the 
parent, rather than show favor to one over the others continues to respond with 
a non-informative "All of them." Pretty soon, you'll move on to someone else 
that can give the answer you need. So you go to a neighbor named perhaps their 
name is "Dell" and ask them do you have any kids that fill this need? They say, 
well in that situation, it would be our 3rd son. 
And you say, great, I'll hire him.

Without unique qualities being emphisised, customers cannot differentiate the 
choices. Without an advocate, customers will not be convinced of the unique 
abilities your product has to solve their problems.

IBM has no AS/400/iSeries advocates/evangelists.

For years the OS/400 advocates have been, me, Al Barsa, John Sears, and a few 
others inside and outside of IBM. Today, there are several "legacy" advocates 
who continue because its easy to continue, and then their's "Dr. Frank".  Dr. 
Frank deserves a lot of credit. He's doing a lot with very little 
resource/backing from IBM. Why doesn Dr. Frank have a team of 200 iSeries 
Evangelists going out telling people that this platform is the best there is?  
Because IBM is just plain dumb.

Even when they have a customer they try to screw it up so badly that they 
probably have difficultying getting new customers.

I recently leased an IBM iSeries 270. And, I have to go back and do the math, 
but I think it cost me more in administration and BS dealing with IBM, than it 
did to pay for the box. I will NEVER buy another piece of equipement from IBM, 
nor will I ever recommend IBM again. It is just too expensive to buy something 
from them--they make it too hard. If you like Thinkpads or Wordpads, then go to 
PC Connection or CDW and get them tomorrow. If you want an AS/400 or iSeries? 
Maybe somebody can start selling them online, publishing the prices and 
shipping them like a commodity. After all, Computers are now like toasters, or 
cars--they are no longer a special piece of equipment that needs special 
handling. 

Today, only the AS/400 doesn't break. In the near future, most computers won't 
break. At that point, price amd servoce will be all that matters.

Bob Cozzi


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