RE: 5 straight quarters of negative sales growth

If what you say might be true, it would be interesting to see the number of
servers being shipped by quarter also.  Inroads would be inroads!



Larry Ketzes
iSeries Senior System Administrator
American Life Insurance Company

One ALICO Plaza
600 King Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
Phone: 302-594-2146
Mobile: 302-559-1631

Fax: 302-830-4524


Email: larry.ketzes@xxxxxxx




-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Trevor Perry
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 2:42 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: 5 straight quarters of negative sales growth

Or, you could be more positive, and say this was not the 18% drop from 
Q42005.

When I was in Australia in October, the local IBMers were telling me that 
they are not selling fewer servers - in fact, there is some growth. I see 
some 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 the 
way the systems are marketed, configured, and priced, but it cannot happen 
overnight. 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 a 
lot of backward thinking from within that needs to change. And, not all of 
us are TPM groupies - most of us think for ourselves. Progress is being 
made, 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 for

the 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 management 
and 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/OS 
V5R5 release was not made any more clear. I am not sure why, but I think 
one reason is that the Power6 chip is about six to nine months behind 
schedule ..."

"...Neither Herring nor Jarman wanted to talk all that much about one of 
my favorite topics since October: user-based pricing for the System i 
line. Both said that they had read the analysis I had put together with 
great interest, but did not endorse my way of thinking very 
enthusiastically. ..."

-Steve