Hello Friends: Joe Geiser wisely states he was "a bit skeptical of the "fall of the 3000" posts," but then goes on to say "I read in Information Week IBM targeting 3000 users for an AS/400 sales campaign." Joe adds that the article reports that IBM believes the AS/400 system is prime to take over the HP 3000 market. The system is no more prime today than it was before IBM began its marketing campaign. There have been recent developments in AS/400 operating system technology relative to 64 bits, but that's not what has won the very few converts to the ranks of Big Blue. A broader list of applications has leveraged the migration of every reference account we in the press have been given. IBM says this is the real target of their marketing effort. The sites needed software, and couldn't find what they wanted running on MPE/iX. Customers say they loved the HP 3000, but needed a revised application. Most of these few-in-number customers work with off-the-shelf software, and they have few options if a program first written in the 80s won't be upgraded or enhanced. They are small to mid-size shops with no taste for in-house development Every customer so far has had to make a severe break in IT operations -- they have chosen to dump IMAGE and many years of HP 3000 training. And all of them are facing some kind of data conversion. The simplest one I've seen so far is a company that is completely walking away from 12 years of data and starting anew. IBM is helping in that company's conversion. The "campaign" consists of a letter mailed to a few thousand HP 3000 customers, a discount of about 10 percent on AS/400 hardware, and financial help to pay for the data conversion and training. Being targeted is nothing new to HP 3000 sites. In 1986 Digital targeted the HP 3000 community just outside the Interex show in Detroit. That was the year that two-page ads proclaimed "Digital has it now," making hay over delays in HP's RISC program. A suite of VAX systems whirred rather loudly in the hotel across from the Cobo Hall convention center. An IMAGE wanna-be included datasets named after well-known HP 3000 luminaries. Digital called the effort its "Systems Attract Program." The next day on the show floor, some HP officials could be seen sporting buttons saying, "Don't be a SAP for DEC." It's marketing. You get targeted if you're successful. HP's solution to the shortfall of HP 3000 applications has been to suggest those applications can be hosted on HP 9000 and NT systems. They can, but ample evidence suggests that choice is substandard to running native MPE/iX applications. Companies are after the HP 3000 business because it's the most loyal and most intelligent set of IT managers in business. Applications drive system decisions. You write 'em, or buy em, but choosing them is the horse that's in front of the cart. Whatever the market can do to encourage continued development on HP 3000s will be the best counter to the IBM AS/400 marketing effort. To date, few companies have responded. Three of the four reference accounts converted more than two years ago. We'll have coverage in our August issue of the NewsWire on this marketing effort. Visit our Web site at http://www.3000newswire.com/newswire to sign up for a free trial subscription (in the US and Canada, if you haven't already). Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief The 3000 News/Wire Independent Information to Maximize Your HP3000 [log in to unmask] 512-331-0075