Re: Opinion makes little difference - WAS: IBM investment in i

Booth,

If the last product in your list was owned by the same
company as the first four then I don't think any of us
would be worried about its future or complaining about
a lack of advertising & promotion. They would simply
call it the iSystem and promote the h*ll out of it.

...Neil


--- Booth Martin <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

errr.... you find this confusing? Why?

iBook
iMac
iPod
iPhone
iSeries

Neil, This whole mess is just a disgrace.

Examples of how to do it right are all over the
place. Even now, we
can look to how Ford resurrected the Mustang and the
Thunderbird
nameplate with HUGE success. An example of
successful and profitable
niche products include Saturn, the PT Cruiser, Jeep
Cherokee, and the
Hummer. IBM could do the same thing with this
platform and avoid
homogenizing their products.

IBM could do the same sort of thing with the AS/400
name plate and
easily create a truly great niche for several more
decades. Even if IBM
does nothing more, there is little doubt that the
platform will be
around for at least a decade, maybe two. Thats a
very long time in the
computer business.

There is a certain cachet with the nameplate, and it
could be exploited,
not a "managed decline."





Neil Palmer wrote:

Trevor,

In answer to your first three questions, No, No &

No.

I think #4 and #5 are basically the same question,

and

on the theory that no publicity is bad publicity,

I

think you could argue my article and this

discussion

in Midrange-L are part of the answer.

Really, the fact we even have to ask what WE are

doing

to promote the platform, instead of what IBM is

doing,

is nothing short of an absolute disgrace. Name

one

other company that refuses to advertise and

promote

what should be one of its star products, to say

why it

is better and to differentiate it from its
competition, and leaves it to its customers to do

its

work for it.

I wouldn't care if they renamed it the Edsel - as

long

as IBM mounted some sort of half decent campaign

to

establish some brand recognition (which they have

a

habit of throwing away every time they start) and
explain to the "uneducated masses" what it is, why
it's better than its competition, and why you

would

want it to run your business. You know the answer

to

that. I know the answer to that. Probably

everyone

on this list knows the answer to that. The

outside

world doesn't. Without the outside world knowing

the

reasons they should look to and use this wonderful
product it WILL eventually wither away and die

(yes,

like OS/2). The future of "i" is as a

"functionally

stabilized" operating system that will run for

years

on IBM hardware. Its main appeal is to existing
customers, and to the small number of new

customers

who need an application that does not run on

Linux,

Unix or Windows.

We all know WHY we will never see a concerted

effort

on IBM's part to draw new customers to this

platform.

Simple economics. IBM makes most of its money on
services. Our platform doesn't generate enough
revenue for services because it's so integrated

and

easy to use compared to its competition (praise be

to

Rochester for that), therefore it is not in IBM's

best

interests to expand the customer base for this
platform. It's a simple as that and no amount of
wishful thinking (or in my case I suppose you'd

say

bitching) is going to change that. That doesn't

mean

to say I expect either of us will give up trying

to do

what we think is best for this platform.

SO - any sort of concerted marketing effort from

IBM

to push this platform isn't going to happen. So

how

do WE promote the platform? Simple, we will use

all

the information provided on IBM's web site that
explains the benefits and advantages of "i" over

AIX,

Linux & Windows. Its low total cost of ownership

and

maintenance. All of the features that are

integrated

into it. Its outstanding reliability and ease of

use.

Its fiercely loyal, satisfied, dedicated and

vocal

customer base. Why "i" is designed for business

in

ways that Unix, Linux & Windows are not. Why you
should use it to run your business instead of

those

other operating systems.
Oh, wait a minute. I can't find any such pages on
IBM's web site. Could you point them out to me?

I'm not complaining about the past, just providing

a

clear picture of the future: a product that, in

spite

of what IBM propaganda says, is "functionally
stabilized". There will be no sudden moves, no
"withdrawal from marketing", no "withdrawal of
support". And no innovation. Just catch up.

Call this an AS/400's purist perspective if you

must,

but I think the fate of our platform was sealed

almost

before it was born, back when IBM won the

anti-trust

law suit against the US government. If the

General

Systems Division had been spun off into a separate
company back then things sure would have been
different. Somewhere there's an alternate

universe

where Rochester controls its own fate and the

AS/400

brand is as strong and respected as Apple, Ferrari

and

Google. The only problem in that alternate

universe

is that constitutional term limits have been

abolished

and George W Bush, following the lead of Idi Amin,

has

declared himself President for Life (yes, and King

of

Scotland). ;-)


PS - you think sitting on your arse is easy? Wait
till you get hemorrhoids ! You don't have that
problem yet do you? Just checking. ;-)


...Neil


--- Trevor Perry <trevor@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Neil,

I have discovered an interesting division based

on

the shenanigans on
midrange-L. There are the people who want to live

in

the glorious past, and
there are those who care about the future of the
"platform". For those who
live in the past, it is ALWAYS hilarious to make

the

joke about "what it is
called today".

As humans, it is easy to sit on our arses and
complain when our world is
significantly changed. And, from an AS/400's

purist

perspective, the world
is no longer warm and green and fuzzy. They have

to

deal with IBM's approach
to business. And most of the crap that is zinging
around this month is about
IBM having an approach to business that is not

the

one that fits the
complainer personally. Well, bad luck. IBM has
changed the paradigm. And no
amount of complaining will bring back the

glorious

green past. And no amount
of pointing out IBM's 'mistakes' will change
anything - it will just mean
more arses will get fatter sitting in a chair and
typing complaints to
midrange-L, or any other forum that can be

annoyed.

Easy, but not
productive.

Anyone can have an opinion. And with midrange-L,

we

all know about all of
them.

I ask you these questions - and everyone else who
has words on this topic.
- Are you simply complaining?
- Are you just pointing out IBM's apparent

missteps?

- Are you pissed because it is not called what

~you~

want?
- What are you doing about the FUTURE of the
platform?
- What are you going to PROMOTE the platform?

Just checking,
Trevor


On 5/7/08 11:11 PM, "Neil Palmer"
<neilpalmer400mr@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Trevor,

Just playing devils advocate here, because I

KNOW

you

are dedicated to ________
(fill in the blank from the list:)
AS/400
eServer iSeries
iSeries
eServer i5
System i5
System i
i
irene

and I really DO appreciate/envy your enthusiasm.

But (apart from the fact i5/OS, AIX & Linux have

been

running on the same hardware for years) if one

could

say IBM has brought "i" to the mainstream

because

it

now runs on the same hardware platform as AIX &

Linux,

could one not also say IBM brought OS/2 to the
mainstream because it ran on the same hardware
platform as Windows?

;-)


...Neil

Neil Palmer, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

(This account not monitored for personal mail,
remove the last two letters before @ for that)


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