John Clogg writes:
>Duane Percox writes:
>
>> First. Marketing creates desirability.
>
>I would amend that to say marketing creates the perception of
>desirability.  The perception will be transitory, if the
>product isn't there to back it up.  Of course, you can fool
>all of the people some of the time...

Of course. But remember: perception is reality. The issue is
that the product itself doesn't create a market. Take the HP 3000 as
an example. No matter how good it was it was never marketed
to the extent that IBM marketed inferior products. And don't
use the as/400 as your guide here. Consider the following
IBM products that existing during the run of the HP 3000:

series 34, 36, 38
series 1 (a joke timesharing system)

Only the series 38 even came close to achieving the technical
features of the 3000.

>>Second. IBM is an example that refutes your comments.
>
>Are you saying IBM doesn't have quality products?  I
>disagree.  Although some of IBM's operating systems are ugly
>compared to MPE, their systems are reliable and their support
>is top-notch.

Of course not. The issue is relative. In many cases IBM generated
higher sales volume for technically inferior products when those
products were compared to offerings from other vendors.

duane

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