Re: Fast400 Value to iSeries community is less than zero

Chris,

At 11/11/01 01:13 PM -0800, you wrote:
>I'm afraid I just don't understand that analogy and it confuses me when you
>say that is "how /400 customers view..."
>
>IBM isn't charging more for existing systems. They do charge less for CPW
>than they did in the past, but their price/power ration hasn't declined as
>rapidly as other platforms or even when compared with buying the same
>platform but when used for other purposes.
>
>I'm not trying to justify IBM's pricing, I'm just looking at your analogy
>above. I just don't see how it fits at all.

  Then let's look at history.  With every release / upgrade / iteration /
generation of hardware the price per transaction has dropped.  This is, of
course, not unique to the IBM Midrange, it's the natural evolution of
technology.

  The 5250 interactive data stream has been around for decades.  It is
stable and is not being improved upon (at least significantly.)  There is
relatively little cost for IBM to support it.  So, from a customer's
perspective, it looks like IBM has decided to halt Moore's law by
artificially reducing the ability to do a particular type of processing or
charging an exorbitant price to enable what should have been there in the
first place - and traditionally always has been!!  It was up to the
customer to decide how to split up their processing load.  Is this IBM's
way of trying to recoup the loss of sales of their dumb terminals?

  How do you think a customer looking to upgrade to a new system will view
the new pricing model?  Stunts like this cause customers to reevaluate
continuing to use the platform when it comes time to upgrade.

  I that clarifies my opinion.

  -mark