Re: Any comments on Fontecchio's blog?

?? oh?

First - I am, and will remain, an IBM bigot. I make no apologies for that.
Second - Moore's Law is a factor. A 50% reduction in hardware cost every 18 months since the 1960s (or before) is *going* to have an impact!
Third - The IBM Midrange machine is a niche product. That is not going to change.
Forth - Price is never the issue, *especially* when the decision makers are spending OPM (Other People's Money).
Fifth - As a niche product, the IBM Midrange machine is, or should be, outside the IBM mainline just as Saturn and Corvette are not in the traditional General Motors Chevy-Buick-Pontiac-Oldsmobile-Cadillac business model.
Six - Coca-Cola blundered, and for a while they pursued the "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" approach to selling the newly formulated Coke. That strategy didn't work for them, and it won't work for Trevor or IBM.

Where is the flawed or circular logic, Trevor?


(Just to be really clear on this, I happen to think highly of Trevor Perry. He does sessions for the Dallas User Group and he does a first rate job! Plus, I believe he has a first rate mind and is a straight thinker. Unfortunately, it appears to me that he's gotten into the kool-aid. :) )




Trevor Perry wrote:

Steve,

Programmers asking questions on Midrange-L tend to be the ones already on
Midrange-L - they just ask more questions, or engage in ridiculous name
debates. Reaching new i5/OS resources on midrange-L does not correspond to a
growth in business. Moot point 1.

We sell lots of small 515 servers where there is no IT staff at all. No net
new i5/OS employment does not equate to a growth in business. Moot point 2.

User group attendance has reduced across the entire IT industry. How do you
equate that to any growth in business? Moot point 3.

Your points have no logic to them. Choose a better equation, or go talk with
Booth - he understands circular and flawed logic.

Trevor


On 3/7/08 2:19 PM, "Steve Richter" <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 7:12 PM, Trevor Perry <trevor@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Booth,

Where are you being told that IBM is not selling anything?

Read some of Mark Shearer's words here:
http://blogs.systeminetwork.com/isnblogs/maxedout/

"In my first two and half years in System i, I got an awful lot of
feedback
from clients that they wanted to pay for what they use, that they wanted
us
to improve the price-to-value ratio . . . and we relaunched our entire
entry-level product line back in April -- that ultimately drove more than
25
percent volume growth last year in System i."

would it follow that there has been a 25% increase in programmers asking
questions on midrange-l? a 25% increase in system i5 employment across the
board, an equivalent increase in attendance at user's groups and COMMON
conferences?

-Steve