Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcce!pasek
From: pasek@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM (Michael A. Pasek)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: IBM Workstations (really, IBM Marketing)
Summary: They're at it again.....
Keywords: IBM, Marketing, Anti-trust
Message-ID: <1629@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM>
Date: 16 Oct 89 14:26:12 GMT
Expires: 23 Oct 89 04:00:00 GMT
References: <16190@vail.ICO.ISC.COM> <4424@bd.sei.cmu.edu> <847@metaphor.Metaphor.COM>
Reply-To: pasek@c10sd3.StPaul.NCR.COM (M. A. Pasek)
Followup-To: comp.arch, alt.legal
Distribution: usa
Organization: NCR Comten, Inc.
Lines: 56

In article <847@metaphor.Metaphor.COM> philf@xymox.metaphor.com (Phil Fernandez) writes:
>Wait a minute.  Remember that many three-piece-suited executives
>making buying decisions know plenty about IBM's upcoming product and
>announcment, and are making wait-or-buy decisions based on those
>facts.

Wasn't IBM enjoined from "pre-announcing" products more than X months (or 
years) before they were to be available ?  Specifically to prevent the
"Well, I might as well wait and see what IBM's product looks like before
I spend money on vendor X's equipment/software..."  (nevermind that vendor
X's equipment/software is available today) ?
 
>For example, I was recently down to IBM's Advanced Workstation
>Division Austin center for a full briefing about the new IBM RISC
>line.  I've seen and touched the boxes; I've heard concrete
>architecture, price and performance information.  I definitely have
>enough information to make a wait/buy decision.  (No comment on the
>decision; I'm under non-disclosure :)

So....it looks like they are still pre-announcing, they just have you
sign a little piece of legal material that says you won't TELL anybody
that they did it.....

This (unfortunately) appears to be the way to "make it" in today's 
business world.  You don't have to come up with anything new or
innovative, just take somebody else's sweat and make everyone THINK
that yours will be NEW AND IMPROVED.  By the time it hits the market,
everyone will have already ordered a zillion of them, and too many
butts will be on the line to say "Geez, this is nothing new" (after
all, this equipment/software is usually over-priced to cover the
marketing costs -- how would you tell your CEO that you just paid
twice as much and waited a year for something that was already 
available).
 
OK, I'm off the soapbox now.....and back (somewhat) to reality.  
I don't mean to bash ALL of IBM, as they do come up with some good
stuff (now and then).  And IBM is far from alone in the "let's
develop a good marketing story" arena.  Personally, I long for the
days (past or future) when a product stands on its own merits.

>phil
>
>p.s. Oh, I only wore a two-piece suit...
 
Must have been the dress-code at the plant :-)
 
>+-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
>| Phil Fernandez              |             philf@metaphor.com               |
>|                             |     ...!{apple|decwrl}!metaphor!philf        |
>| Metaphor Computer Systems   |"Does the body rule the mind, or does the mind|
>| Mountain View, CA           | rule the body?  I dunno..." - Morrissey      |
>+-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------+

M. A. Pasek          Switching Software Development         NCR Comten, Inc.
(612) 638-7668              CNG Development               2700 N. Snelling Ave.
pasek@c10sd3.StPaul.NCR.COM                               Roseville, MN  55113