Reminder: I don't speak for any corporation. I do speak *to* corporations -- well, at least to people who work at corporations.
....I think there may be some over-analysis here. In theory at least, any vendor introducing their software product to a new (for them) platform can price it however they want. For example, if they want to come up with a MIPS-equivalent formula for IFLs and charge the "same" price, they can. Or whatever. (IBM, for example, says that each System z10 IFL core requires 120 Processor Value Units of IBM software -- and some products, particularly in the WebSphere brand, are available sub-capacity -- so that's IBM's formula. But vendors can price using almost any formula they want. Heck, they could price per SMF record processed if that's what they want to do and if you're willing to buy that way.) Vendors can also charge based on how you use the software, which functions you use (and don't use), etc. As one (infamous?) example, Microsoft does that with Windows Vista -- and will do that even more with Windows 7. They plan to ship identical DVDs for Windows 7 for every edition. The only difference is that you'll need more expensive keys as you unlock progressively more function. If you run Windows 7 Home Basic (in emerging markets), your key won't enable Windows Media Center, for example. That said, given the infinite variety of possible prices and pricing methodologies, it then becomes a business decision whether the company can, quite simply, grow its revenues and profits (net -- and that could include stemming revenue and profit losses) by introducing its product on a new platform. So when you communicate with any vendor, if you've got some direct or indirect input along those lines, do be sure to pass it along. The preferred format is something at least very close to: "If you do X, I'll do Y, else I'll do Z." - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan / Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
