Re: 5 straight quarters of negative sales growth -- MIDRANGE-L

Or, you could be more positive, and say this was not the 18% drop fromQ42005.

When I was in Australia in October, the local IBMers were telling me thatthey are not selling fewer servers - in fact, there is some growth. I seesome of that happening here in the US, as well. What is dropping is revenue,not the numbers of servers. We already know there has to be a change in theway the systems are marketed, configured, and priced, but it cannot happenovernight. Personally, I think 2007 will be an exciting year for System i.Momentum is building.

Have some iPatience. We have a lot of negative marketing to overcome and alot of backward thinking from within that needs to change. And, not all ofus are TPM groupies - most of us think for ourselves. Progress is beingmade, regardless of the financials.

----- Original Message -----From: "Richter,Steve" <Steve.Richter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

To: "rivendell.midrange.com" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 1:24 PM
Subject: 5 straight quarters of negative sales growth

more bad news on the system i sales front. For the 5th quarter in a row,sales dropped.
4q05 -18
1q06 -22
2q06 -7
3q06 -22
4q06 -10
http://www.ibm.com/investor/4q06/4q06earnings.phtml
yet Herring and Jarman, the two IBM execs I think are most responsible forthe over pricing and under powering of the system i, retain their jobs.
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh010807-story01.html
"...When I spoke to Jim Herring, director of System i product managementand business operations (he does the technology side), and Ian Jarman,product manager of the System i product line (he does the marketing side),in late December, the timing of the Power6-based servers and future i5/OSV5R5 release was not made any more clear. I am not sure why, but I thinkone reason is that the Power6 chip is about six to nine months behindschedule ..."
"...Neither Herring nor Jarman wanted to talk all that much about one ofmy favorite topics since October: user-based pricing for the System iline. Both said that they had read the analysis I had put together withgreat interest, but did not endorse my way of thinking veryenthusiastically. ..."
-Steve