RE: If there were a sufficient money stream in the "ma and pas", IBM would

Well, one thing that is interesting from that perspective is that as
time passes my ISV costs become a larger piece of the cost structure.
Some have been good about setting pricing policies that make sense, but
some of them have not.  While the i5 might or might not be price
competitive in the ma and pa world our ISV's in most cases are not.
IMHO there are some ISV's that are just down right arrogant with regards
to their products and pricing policies.

Another issue is that how you define money stream or what your metrics
are.  There are many different pricing and marketing strategies that
abound.  And a lot of them that are successful do not make money at
first.  The most famous one was how TI priced calculators a few decades
ago.  They lost money for a while but due to manufacturing efficiencies
and increased volumes they started to make money.  The same was true
with color tv's.  And I'm sure that someone can think of some that
failed.....

Could IBM make money here?  Yes, anyone can.  Is IBM, the System i, and
the ISV market geared to handle this market segment.  I would say it
isn't.  Don't get me wrong - I want it to be but I think it's a
different world and IBM with it's xSeries servers is in an odd position
of competing with itself.  And no matter what we are told there are
boundaries that are out there and I think most of them are detrimental
to the System i.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Franz
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 9:28 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: If there were a sufficient money stream in the "ma and
pas",IBM would

imho - i think the application vendors bear at least half the 
responsibility -
the ibm sales team partnered with "maps" and "vars" to present mom & pop
shops with that solution tied to one monthly payment. IBM still making
the hardware and OS, more powerful, and cheaper than ever - but
where are the solution providers? (and i know ibm is working hard to get
solutions ported "to" the i5).
jim
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Allen" <scprideandms@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 8:25 AM
Subject: Re: If there were a sufficient money stream in the "ma and
pas",IBM 
would

I agree it's another time, another place, disappear without a trace

(oops

Buffet moment)



On 8/1/06, Dave Odom <Dave.Odom@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Mark,

If there were a sufficient money stream in the "ma and pas", IBM

would
be there.----> See System/34 and /36 <<

A TOTALLY different time, place and world.  Money went a lot further,
fuel was around $.30 per gallon, I got paid $190.00 per month and

didn't

know what I was going to do with all that money.

At that time there were FEW IBM competitors for that space (no
Microsofts, no UNIX and the like).  IBM was the bull of the woods.

Now,

it is far from it.   And, because IBM was a, if not THE, bull of the
woods and the "ma and pas" had few places to go .  They pretty much

HAD

to go to IBM; hence one reason for the BIG litigation in the '70s &

'80s

of IBM.   IBM was FLUSH with cash, so much so I watched it spend $18M

on

a warehouse for a project only to say, "Nah", we don't really want it
now and that sunk money was peanuts; and that's a small sample.   But
the end of the '80s things "CHANGED" at IBM.   And, by the way, the

'34

and 36 were on their way out of their selling books  of business.

But now, most of the above is no longer true.   Since the "ma and

pas"

only want to spend small sums for their company's computers and

support

personnel and services, they are a candidate for Microsoft with their
consumer commodity products, NOT a professional computing system and
environment like you get from IBM.   "Ma and Pas' wouldn't even

CONSIDER

something like a '34 or '36 today; its WAY TOO complicated and

requires

real programmers and IT professionals.   They want something that a
"user" can manager and run.   Enter Microsoft.    And IBM is pulling

out

of all markets that cost a lot to build products for or service those
products and the like.   IBM is not a consumer products company and

"Mas

and Pas" are consumer businesses now days.   When they grow up and go
through the first of those "business plateaus" that all businesses go
through and get to a point where they need serious computing power,

with

more than "office" applications,  THEN IBM can make some money on

them.

Later,

Dave

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