>
> Date:    Tue, 30 Apr 2002 06:33:33 -0400
> From:    "John R. Wolff" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: IBM Gets It Right for the iSeries (formerly AS/400)
>
> The article referenced below illustrates how IBM is continuing to support
> their iSeries (formerly called the AS/400) and is regularly upgrading the
> OS to newer chips, including the top of the line chip.
-Snip-
> If the "new" HP wants to compete with IBM they need to take a page (and
> probably the whole book) from IBM and learn how to *market* a product line

I think this really gets to point. Justifications for the EOL from
HP and those who agree have read like banal platitudes cut and
pasted from a business 101 text. Due to a "shirking environment", as
if it is completely alien to a company differentiate its product and
grow a market.

With hindsight I would rather compare MPE to IBM's 390 mainframe,
which is gaining as centralized transaction processing is regaining
favor in large companies. This is the type of thing MPE and VMS
excel at, but the high end of the market has been abandoned to IBM.
The way to market MPE would have been to push it up market, not down
to compete with PC networks.

The top end of the market is where you sell high margin services too.

In HP's last Web cast, someone asked why the same machine ran at
a faster clock speed when HPUX was installed than MPE. The answer
seemed as lame as I could imagine. I don't think I understood it.
It went something like HP decided what price/performance was
appropriate considering where the customers were upgrading from.
It left me the impression that HP was deliberately crippling the
hardware if MPE was installed because THEY decided YOU didn't need
the performance. Did I misunderstand this?

We'll see if HP learned its lesson when they inherit VMS from
Compaq/Digital. The current strategy is to port VMS to the IA-64.
But with so many Unix versions and Windows going IA-64, why should
I buy a complex system like VMS. The herd mentality is killing
product differentiation.

VMS has a good install base in the financial industry. If it's pushed
down market it will follow MPE to the grave and the 390 will
inherit its top market customers and the services that go with it.

Jerry Finn
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