Re: RE: Green Streak

Isn't this the lesson we learned from M$? It seems to me that their
stragegy has been pretty clear and consistent: first you capture the
market; then you concentrate on building your profits. Leif may be correct
that IBM thinks that milking the OS/400 market until it's dead is the best
way to go, but I think it's fair to argue that over the longer term it's a
bad idea for everyone -- stockholders, customers, and employees -- because
a dead market won't generate anything.

It seems to me that the combination of OS/400 with DB2 is the best
available environment for transaction-intensive businesses (this isn't
just my idea -- I think Joe Pluta says the same thing), and if I were an
IBMer looking to still be around in 10 or 15 years I'd be trying to a) get
that environment into every place it could reasonably fit, and b) foster a
developer community that will produce the add-ons needed to make it useful
for actual businesses.

I think that the calls for smaller, cheaper boxes are basically suggesting
that these would be one way of moving in that direction,and the perception
is that it's not happening. No offense at all to Anne Lucas, but think
about it -- if everyone who's interested in a small developer box has to
contact her personally, how likely is it that Jane Doe who read somewhere
about the iSeries and thought it sounded interesting is ever going to find
out? Suppose I run a small tool shop, with maybe 30-40 employees and a
6-node PC network, and I'm thinking of taking the next step. Is there a
clear iSeries choice, or should I really wait until I'm three times as
big? Realistically, if I have to wait I'll already have another system by
then, and the sales job will be that much harder.

If Leif is right, IBM's answer is that I should move to Linux, and then
when I get big enough I can buy an iSeries (or whatever) to run it on.
Frankly, I don't see why anyone at IBM would think that was intelligent
advice.

Just my $.02


midrange-l@midrange.com writes:
>Did I not learn
>either in my university business courses or through work experience in
>general that sometimes doing something that does not generate a direct
>profit may, in fact, generate indirect profit down the road?  This is not
>genius-speak fer cryin out loud!


Mike Naughton
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Judd Wire, Inc.
124 Turnpike Road
Turners Falls, MA  01376
413-863-4357 x444
mnaughton@juddwire.com