Hello Friends:
 
Lou Cook wondered about yesterday's HP telecast,"Defining the New
Enterprise," and then noted:
 
>Not a single mention of the 3000, or even a _hint_ by anyone involved, that
>HP knew about any operating environment other than UNIX or NT.
>And they wonder why the 3000 community seems to be concerned about the
>future....
 
I watched and wasn't surprised that the 3000 got no airtime. This broadcast
was designed to convince Unix people that PA-8000 computing wouldn't be a
tough migration. HP's competition in the Unix field, especially Sun, are
claiming the new generation of PA RISC will be as big a migration headache
as Solaris was for Sun users. HP wants to nip that stuff in the bud before
HP rolls out K-Class servers with PA-8000 chips in Q1 1997. Hence this
PA-8000 testimonial.
 
This TV show was sponsored by the GSY folks, since Nigel Ball, the
marketing manager for GSY, was the host. Did you notice that the only
airtime NT got was when HP wanted to convince you that HP-UX would be
compatible with it? GSY has never been any good at mentioning the HP 3000
in any presentation. Or any other solution, for that matter.
 
Think of it as an infomercial for the Healthrider. You wouldn't be
surprised if there was no mention of Soloflex in that broadcast, would you?
In total, there wasn't much news in this broadcast, even for Unix people.
And the Q&A segment at the end was pretty limp. (Seemed like a lot of
questions about NT from the audience, especially considering that they're
using Unix. Hmmm, maybe it's not the end-all solution after all.) HP has
learned to mix its own questions in with called-in questions, to keep their
own message from getting diluted.
 
TV broadcasts to customers are a good idea. But they need more factual
information than this infomercial provided.
 
Lou also noted: "Rich Sevcik even used "mission critical" and UNIX in the
same sentence! I thought "mission critical" was the forte of the 3000.
Shouldn't Rich know better?"
 
This was the best part, in my opinion. A few years back HP was trying to
position the HP 3000 and HP 9000 as complementary solutions. At that time
HP called the 3000s mission critical, and Unix was being called general
purpose computing. Now that there's a new skirt on the block, it's Unix
that's being called mission critical. Do you note a trend here? Whatever is
the latest and hottest isn't as mission critical as the established
solution. Of course, not even former NPR journalist Ira Flatoh, paid to
appear as a newsman on this show, could be paid enough to call that tactic
news. That's the tactic where your older product is called more stable. No
TV show can change the fact that the HP 3000 is still more mission critical
than anything else HP sells.
 
We shouldn't use GSY marketing efforts as a measure of HP's support of the 3000.
 
Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief
The 3000 NewsWire
Independent Information to Maximize Your HP3000
http://www.3000newswire.com/newswire
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