Re: To PHP or not PHP, that is the question was-> Re: Getting startedwith Net.data

From: Aaron Bartell
I am curious what types of applications sold the IBMi and how
much the total cost was (including hardware) that made them
go with the IBMi?

I'm not sure what your question has to do with PHP, but IBM i has a strong presence in banking and credit union industries where the cost of a complete turn-key solution, including hardware varies widely, based on the number of accounts, the agregate value of their assets, the package options selected.  The cost may also include conversion, installation, and training services.  And when I say "complete turn-key", I mean a system that runs about 98% of their entire operations - where you essentially become a sole-source vendor with a very close and highly trusted relationship with the customer, and where you're normally the only IT staff for their operations, which involves a lot of communication back and forth during the year.
When I was in that industry, we were converting an average of about 2 credit unions to our package per month, and the initial cost ranged from about 50K to 750K, and annual maintence thereafter was about 20% of the initial license fees.
In such a setting, the customer has more loyalty to a vendor than to a particular platform, but IBM i engenders more loyalty than average.
Nathan.