Microsoft vs IBM (and the rest of the world)

["Chuck Morehead" <cbmorehead@xxxxxxxxxx>]

The NT vs. AS/400 discussion reminded me of a project I worked on while getting my MBA several years ago.  My group did an evaluation of Microsoft in order to estimate what their stock price should be.  We had to go through our figures and research again and again because we kept coming up with a price that was significantly low.  Then we finally found the reason for MS's inflated stock price:  Marketing.  Who else could have people in line at midnight to buy an OS that was years late and with many known bugs?  Microsoft is the spinmaster of IT.  Have you seen their recent media campaign promoting the stability and reliability of NT?  They don't make any specific claims, so I guess it isn't really lying. 

 

I don't believe that Bill Gates is a techno-genius, rather he (and his team) is a marketing-genius.  There have been many superior alternatives to MS products over the years, and a lot of those have been discontinued because of low sales.  They were a better product, but the vendor could not "out market" MS.  While I agree that IBM's public support of the AS/400 is less than spectacular, I think it is probably easier for any vendor to follow in MS's wake to pick up profits than it is to swim upstream against the tide and try to create them.  IBM has not been too successful with this in the past.  (Think OS/2.)  I did have had a glimmer of hope with the surfer ads a few years ago, but since then I haven't seen any public campaigns for the AS/400.  IMHO media campaigns are needed so that IT Directors and CIO's are familiar with the platform.  The company I work for provides consulting services and it is unbelievably difficult to convince management that the solution for them is a platform they have never even heard of, even if it is from IBM.

 

However, there is a bright side, if people start using AS/400 or iSeries.  E.g. there is a manufacturing company in my area that was bought out a few years back.  Since then they have had two attempts by corporate management to replace their AS/400 with NT.  Each time the attempt has failed due to the vocalizations of how much they like the AS/400, how well it meets their needs, and how easy it is to maintain.  Now if we could only figure out how to get all of the users that feel this way to vocalize to IBM...

 

Chuck Morehead