With a gross margin on mainframe software around 85%, surely IBM would fall over its own feet if another supplier were to promote z/Architecture in a credible way to new accounts and expand the zArchitecture installed base.
T'ain't the way. Right from the beginning, the PCM industry concentrated on "intercept selling". Find someone about to buy an IBM box, and try and slip one of ours in under the IBM price. In terms of real lead generation - going out and finding people who hadn't considered a mainframe before - all of the PCMs were pathetic. Well, they made no effort whatsoever. The strategy was always to find existing IBM users and take a deal from IBM. If PSI had taken a view - with their multi-OS product - that they'd address HP-UX users and convert them to z/OS - things might have been different. But the implication was the reverse. I'm actually at a loss to know why IBM tolerated PSI's daft little games for so long. Perhaps they expected PSI's VCs to pull the plug and save them the trouble (and the p/r downside) of a lawsuit, as happened with UMX, and were as surprised as me at the VCs' stupidity. Some VCs set new benchmarks for gullibility - one wonders if any of PSI's backers ever consulted an analyst with current mainframe market experience to valid the basic business plan. 'Cos - IMO - even with software rights the numbers don't work. Sure looks to me like they didn't. Serves them right. PSI's monthly run rate is frightening - with no prospect of any return, ever. I still think there'll be another suit. I cannot believe thatt any VC, presented with a cold light of day analysis of this product's prospects, would have advanced one red cent. And I also remain convinced that IBM has ultimately taken action not because of any perceived threat from the product, but because it's just so pissed off at the quarter by quarter uncertainty generated in the market. Eventually, PSI will implode - it's just taking longer than it really ought to. Between writing this and sending it - cited from the PSI web site: "PSI Open Mainframes are the first mainframe servers that can run the z/OS, Linux, Windows and UNIX on a single server foorprint." Bolleaux. Even some configurations of the late unlamented IBM xSeries 430 could do that. Some of PSI's claims really stretch credibility. -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.co.uk +44 7833 654 800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
