In all fairness, there is that two page spread with the lady (is female
business professional the politically correct form? Or would that be
business womyn?) walking up the side of a mountain, promoting IMAGE/SQL
and ALLBASE/SQL. And I've actually seen it in non-HP 3K pubs.

Isn't this primarily about marketing and market share? The competitive
market is UNIX, and HP has some strengths to sell to that market:
PA-RISC, 64-bit UNIX... The 3K's competition is what, AS/400? If HP
abuses us enough, what will we leave the 3k for, the 9K? The already
have us; no point in preaching to the choir about going to church. What
reason does someone have to by their first 3K that isn't also true for
the 9K? The only thing I can think of is why I have my current job: the
software this company bought runs on the 3K.

The 'only' other reason is to have a performant transaction processing
platform that will integrate with other systems; now, I think that that
is reason enough to use the 3K. I agree with Mike Yawn's book (and see
the excerpted Interex article by the same title) "The Legacy Continues":
get the right box(es) for the task(s). This is the only other potential
market that I see; although I would like to see defensible arguments
(not flames) to the contrary. Like COBOL, there is a not inconsiderable
market presence, but not a sense of demand or of a lack of supply. Now,
if HP believed that there was money to be made, I think that they would
market the 3K to increase their share of the market... Can we convince
HP of this? Or am I mistaken about the problem or its solution?

>----------
>From:  Therm-O-Link[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent:  Wednesday, October 30, 1996 9:04 AM
>To:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject:       Re: No HP3000 in "Federal Solutions from Hewlett-Packard"
>
>On Tue, 29 Oct 1996 16:36:21 -0500, John Korb <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>Last Wednesday I visited the HP booth at the FEDNET/FEDIMAGING show in
>>Washington, DC.  No HP3000 products were on display.  No HP3000
>>literature was available.  I picked up some of the literature that was
>>available, including "Federal Solutions From Hewlett-Packard" (subtitled
>>"Creating the Standard in Government Computing).
>>
>>I just got around to reading it.  Paragraphs on "Client/Server Computing",
>>"Open Enterprise Solutions", "Data Warehousing/Decision Support",
>>and "Internet/Intranet Service" are included, as are paragraphs on "The
>>HP/Intel Relationship", "Hewlett-Packard's NT Strategy", and "HP's
>>Dedication to Security".
>>
>>What operating systems are mentioned?  You guessed it, HP-UX, UNIX, and
>>NT.  No mention of MPE/iX.
>>
>>What platforms were mentioned?  "... from today's Intel-based systems
>>(x86, Pentium, etc.) and HP's PA-RISC-based systems (HP9000 products)."
>>Hmmm.  I thought the HP3000 was a PA-RISC-based system also...
>
>>John
>
>And on Tue, 29 Oct 1996 13:44:46 -0800, nwtd <[log in to unmask]> replied:
>
>>Gee. What a surprise. I'm shocked.
>
>Well, I am not "shocked", I am outraged!  I am sick and tired of HP treating
>the
>3000 as a second-rate system.  Every year (well, every year since the "Boston
>Tea Party") we have had the same complaints and presented the same questions
>to
>HP management ("When will HP promote the 3000 as a serious business system?"
>"When will HP include the 3000 in its strategic planning?", etc. ad nauseum)
>and
>received the same tired response from HP: "The 3000 is a mature system, but
>it
>is an integral part of our strategic planning" and "We will support MPE until
>the last user leaves it".  Then, we see no change whatsoever in HP's attitude
>or
>committment (read, $) to the 3000.  Now, I admit that HP is showing *some*
>signs
>of changing, what with porting Java to the 3000 and the web tools being made
>available.  But what about the COBOL compiler?  What about ODBC?  What about
>applications developers?  And why isn't the 3000 featured in any
>advertisements
>for HP computers?  Why isn't Image/SQL promoted?
>
>The bottom line is this:  What can we loyal HP customers do to influence HP's
>attitude towards the 3000, other than what we have been doing?  Any answers?
>
>Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
>E-Mail: [log in to unmask]      Therm-O-Link, Inc.
>Phone: (330) 527-2124                   P. O. Box 285
>  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   Garrettsville, Ohio  44231
>