Re: RPG is Dead? Say it aint so!

[Booth Martin <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I guess I didn't state my point well.  Yes, of course there is 
little guarantee that a company will pass along cost savings, but 
competitive pressures tend to make that happen over time. 

Therefore, over time, if you have a slipping cost price, that has got to 
show up eventually in lower sales prices and lost dollar volumes for the 
same levels of activity.

A comparison:  Lets say that every 18 months for 40+ years the cost of 
producing socks falls by 50%.  At some point everyone just has too many 
socks, regardless of what the fashion mavens say & do.  At that point 
socks sales dollar volumes would have to fall.  Great management could 
not overcome that simple economic reality.



DennisRootes@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> You say something that is unclear to me. 
>
> Lets say Moore's Law is still in effect, which seems to still be the case.
>
> What is the effect of a 50% drop in revenue per transistor, every 18 
> months, over a couple of decades?  Doesn't there have to be a point 
> where increasing sales can no longer be sustained?
>
> I don't understand?  Why would a cheaper manufacturing cost of transistors 
> slow iSeries sales?  If anything, if it was cheaper to manufacture IBM 
> should be able to sell more units at a reduced cost by passing the savings 
> on to the customer.  Personally, I think what has killed sales is the 
> perception of the platform being a dinosaur, and IBM's constant rebranding 
> of things to the point that even if the customer wanted to jump onboard he 
> doesn't even know where to start.
>
> I love the 400, it's a good, solid, dependable platform and writing RPG is 
> a breeze.  Interfacing to the non-IBM world is a little tricky, but 
> doable.  I do my part, I tell anyone who asks what I do that I work on the 
> best platform in the world - unfortunately, 90% of them have no idea what 
> the AS/400/iSeries/System i is.  I think it's about time for IBM to do 
> their part and sell, sell, sell the damn platform until the next time 
> someone asks me what I do, and I say I program on the iSeries, that person 
> tells me how he's heard so much good buzz about it that I must be a lucky 
> man indeed!  =)
>
>