Re: Midrange Computing is liquidating. -- MIDRANGE-L

Leif,
    Your words were very specific, that's why I quoted them. If you wish to
change your statements, go ahead and say so.

    I agree that it seems the AS/400 is close to the point in its life cycle
where it is simply a supported legacy system. However, I do see that IBM is
working hard to keep that from happening. For the simple reason they want to
make money with it. I want them to, also. I am hoping that some of the
directions IBM is taking with the AS/400 (iSeries) will pay off and it will
be around for a long time to come. Even if it only brings in $10 billion
annual, IBM should keep it around.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leif Svalgaard" <leif@leif.org>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: Midrange Computing is liquidating.


> you are reading much too much into my words.
> All I'm saying is that in any product's life there comes
> a point where it is more profitable to let it die, and
> that that point is real close for the AS/400,iSeries, etc.
> Letting it die in such a way that you extract the maximum
> amount of dollars from it requires careful execution.
> IBM is good at this.
>
> Now, after the platform is dead, you'll find that it will
> live on in small niche-markets, just like MS-DOS,
> the PDP-11, the Amiga, etc still live.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Chris Rehm <javadisciple@earthlink.net>
> To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
> Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 5:56 PM
> Subject: Re: Midrange Computing is liquidating.
>
>
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Leif Svalgaard" <leif@leif.org>
> > To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
> > Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 2:30 PM
> > Subject: Re: Midrange Computing is liquidating.
> >
> >
> > > From: Chris Rehm <javadisciple@earthlink.net>
> > >
> > > > So you think that the whole reason IBM developed the AS/400 in the
> first
> > > > place was to milk it to death today?
> > >
> > > II don't think you can draw that conclusion
> >
> > You are the one who stated that conclusion. I was merely trying to
clarify
> > your statements.
> >
> > > > How did they know?
> > > >
> > >
> > > Every product that has built up a user base gets into that phase
> > > sooner or later, so this is not hard to know.
> >
> > But didn't you state that reaching this point was part of a "carefully
> > planned
> > and executed strategy." Are you revising that to state that you feel the
> > AS/400 has reached "that phase" as part of a normal process of "every
> > product?"
> >
> > Personally, I don't know that the AS/400 has necessarily reached "that
> > phase" if you mean the phase where it is just dying and the vendor
simply
> > makes his money maintaining the installed base. I think that might very
> well
> > be the state of the green screen apps. But the iSeries is being marketed
as
> > a server and there are many uses for servers. We'll see if it can grow
into
> > some other markets.


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