Timothy Prickett quotes Mark Shearer in his latest ITJungle report:
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh050707-story01.html
"..., Shearer explained why IBM was focused on the i5/OS and OS/400
accounts instead of on i5 system sales. He said that based on surveys
of the customer base in the United States, IBM has calculated that for
every $1 customers spend on i5 systems, they spend an additional $2.60
on Windows systems and another 40 cents on Unix systems and external
storage arrays. ..."
"..."We not going to push people to new technology--they're already
there," Shearer admitted. "And we want to do a better job selling
blade servers, SANs, and other technologies to System i customers. We
still have some work to do to make the selling seamless." ..."
"...When pressed about the potential for getting real growth for the
i5 systems themselves, Shearer did not want to get into any specifics.
"It depends on how you look at the boundaries," he said. "If you
define it in a holistic way, I believe that can grow. I am thinking of
the System i as a marketplace, not as a processor and an operating
system. We need to make it easier to integrate these products and
encourage companies to buy IBM's products." ..."
I read this as IBM saying we dont mind customers leaving the system i,
what we dont want to happen is customers leave IBM. Good for IBM, bad
for technical types with an i5/OS skillset.
-Steve
midrange.com
