RE: IBM will announce two new System i models, 515 and 525 on Apr. 10.

From: Steve Richter

I hope you are right, but IBM is still charging twice the market price
and limiting the number of cores. ITJungle says the entry i515 comes
with 5 users @ $250 per user with a final price of $7995. The two
lowest priced entry p5 systems are priced at $2995 and $3717. On those
systems, you add AIX or Linux and you are ready to run. If i5/OS was
available on the p5 the price would be $4245 and $4967. Why the extra
$3000 for the i515?? ( If the answer is DB2, then why the higher
price per user for i5/OS than AIX? )

Steve, having been one of the great detractors of your comments over the
years, I have to say that your crystal ball has been the clearest of any of
us. And now that IBM seems to want to turn the i5 into a low-end server
commodity box, I really can no longer argue with your points.

If, as some folks inside IBM contend, all IBM components are to be
unbundled, then there's no reason the i5 and p5 should be different in
pricing, and in fact there really shouldn't even be a name difference.
I5/OS is simply an option.

Joe