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From: ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Passing GO, etc. (was Re: OEM)
Message-ID: <12065@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 16 Aug 90 16:50:19 GMT
References: <802@beguine.UUCP> <130@thor.UUCP> <325@saxony.pa.reuter.COM>
Reply-To: ergo@netcom.uucp
Organization: UESPA
Lines: 52

In <325@saxony.pa.reuter.COM> dgil@pa.reuter.COM (Dave Gillett) writes:

>In <130@thor.UUCP> scjones@thor.UUCP (Larry Jones) writes:
>>Sorry, but Walt was completely correct.  The OEM is the >ORIGINAL<
>>equipment manufacturer -- whoever made the thing in the first place.
>>The guy that buys that product, adds value, and resells it is a VAR.

>How a word originates, and what it means, can often be two different things.
>I've no doubt that Larry's theory about verb-izing OEM is historically
>correct, although you can get the same effect by making it an adjective:
>the OEM version, the OEM market, etc.

>Of course, the term was blatantly debased to begin with, since (cf. "OEM
>version") it was only ever used to describe products that were sold by 
>someone *besides* the original manufacturer.

I think part of the confusion happens when a word spreads beyond
a narrow group of people.  Consider mainframe vs. mini vs. micro.
As far as I can figure out, mainframe originally meant discrete
components (the "mainframe" being the housing you stuck all the
components into), a mini meant integrated circuits, and micro meant
major elements of the system (such as the CPU) on single ICs.
Nowadays, marketeers like to say "mainframe" whenever they're
emphasizing their product's raw power (even if all the technology
is purely micro level, as most computers are these days), and end
users tend to say "mainframe" or at least "mini" in reference to
any multi-user system.  Remember how Convergent used to used the
word "Frame" in all it's multiuser product names?

And speaking of CT, when I worked there all the customer and employee
indoctrination emphasized CT's image as an "OEM-oriented company".
New employees not familiar with the OEM marketplace (including me)
were *always* confused by this, since it meant exactly the opposite
of what it sounded like.  Then again, the word "original" sort of
makes sense in this context, since many OEMs were themselves computer
manufacturers who needed CT products to fill out their own lines,
such as the mainframe manufacturer who sold whole networks, consisting
of its own machines talking to CT desktops, as a single product.

Sometimes customers were called VARs.  I once asked my divisional
veep what the difference was, and he immediately replied that it
was pretty arbitrary.  I did get the impression that big customers
tended to be called OEMs rather than VARs, and "vertical market"
(specializing in a particular kind of end-user customer) companies
tended to be called VARs.  Or was it the other way 'round?
-- 

ergo@netcom.uucp			Isaac Rabinovitch
atina!pyramid!apple!netcom!ergo		Silicon Valley, CA
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