IBM launches "Microsoft-free" PC initiative
Category IBM/Lotus Microsoft
From PC Pro: IBM launches "Microsoft-free" PC initiative
IBM is teaming up with partners in Austria and Poland to offer Microsoft-free PCs for the eastern European market.
IBM says it is offering the Linux-based PCs together with Red Hat software distributor VDEL of Austria and Polish distributor and services firm LX Polska, in response to demand from Russian IT chiefs.
The PCs will include IBM's Lotus Symphony software based on the Open Document Format...
Interesting that IBM is positioning Lotus Symphony as the productivity suite for these Linux offerings. Given that Microsoft obviously doesn't play AT ALL in the Linux space with Office, that pretty much gives IBM a head start for that platform. And if they continue to work at the SDK model for Symphony, the feature parity between Office and Symphony will continue to narrow. And it's already pretty narrow when you consider the pricing and the feature set that most users actually utilize in Office. Then as that SDK model is brought into the Windows arena, you have an interesting battle if OOXML is not ratified as a standard...
Microsoft is active in IT education campaigns in Russia and last month signed a deal with MTS, Russia's largest mobile operator, to offer services and cut-price laptops installed with its Vista operating system for small businesses.
IBM says the Linux PC line, called Open Referent, will cut desktop computing costs by up to half.
This seems to be a textbook case of a product entering the "maturity" phase of it's life (also known as "death of the cash cow"). With price cuts on Vista, special deals like the one listed above, and everything else Microsoft is doing to push their software onto as many PCs as possible, it appears that they are spending more to receive less margin.
This is very common in manufacturing and sales. Company A (usually a western company of some sort) has a solid hold on a market. Company B (often a lower-wage country) starts to nibble at the fringes. Company A isn't worried, since their core market is not affected. They'll concede those low-margin, low-volume markets. Pretty soon (and it seems to be sooner than later any more), company B starts to improve quality, match features, and cost less. Company A takes notice, retrenches for their high-margin markets, and puts up some resistance at the lower-mid-market level. Company B is now joined by companies C, D, and E, and also buys into Company A's main western competitor. The low-end market is completely lost, the mid-market is also lost (company A is now just another player, and not all that attractive any more), and the high-margin market is now under a full attack. Quality is equivalent, function is equivalent, branding is now established in favor of the competitors, and price is a losing proposition for company A. It's time to either find a new market, fold up the tents, or decide that you are going to be a mere shell of your former self (or a subsidiary of company B).
Apple... iPhones... iPods... Linux... Google... OpenOffice... Open Source... ODF... Nintendo...
From PC Pro: IBM launches "Microsoft-free" PC initiative
IBM is teaming up with partners in Austria and Poland to offer Microsoft-free PCs for the eastern European market.
IBM says it is offering the Linux-based PCs together with Red Hat software distributor VDEL of Austria and Polish distributor and services firm LX Polska, in response to demand from Russian IT chiefs.
The PCs will include IBM's Lotus Symphony software based on the Open Document Format...
Interesting that IBM is positioning Lotus Symphony as the productivity suite for these Linux offerings. Given that Microsoft obviously doesn't play AT ALL in the Linux space with Office, that pretty much gives IBM a head start for that platform. And if they continue to work at the SDK model for Symphony, the feature parity between Office and Symphony will continue to narrow. And it's already pretty narrow when you consider the pricing and the feature set that most users actually utilize in Office. Then as that SDK model is brought into the Windows arena, you have an interesting battle if OOXML is not ratified as a standard...
Microsoft is active in IT education campaigns in Russia and last month signed a deal with MTS, Russia's largest mobile operator, to offer services and cut-price laptops installed with its Vista operating system for small businesses.
IBM says the Linux PC line, called Open Referent, will cut desktop computing costs by up to half.
This seems to be a textbook case of a product entering the "maturity" phase of it's life (also known as "death of the cash cow"). With price cuts on Vista, special deals like the one listed above, and everything else Microsoft is doing to push their software onto as many PCs as possible, it appears that they are spending more to receive less margin.
This is very common in manufacturing and sales. Company A (usually a western company of some sort) has a solid hold on a market. Company B (often a lower-wage country) starts to nibble at the fringes. Company A isn't worried, since their core market is not affected. They'll concede those low-margin, low-volume markets. Pretty soon (and it seems to be sooner than later any more), company B starts to improve quality, match features, and cost less. Company A takes notice, retrenches for their high-margin markets, and puts up some resistance at the lower-mid-market level. Company B is now joined by companies C, D, and E, and also buys into Company A's main western competitor. The low-end market is completely lost, the mid-market is also lost (company A is now just another player, and not all that attractive any more), and the high-margin market is now under a full attack. Quality is equivalent, function is equivalent, branding is now established in favor of the competitors, and price is a losing proposition for company A. It's time to either find a new market, fold up the tents, or decide that you are going to be a mere shell of your former self (or a subsidiary of company B).
Apple... iPhones... iPods... Linux... Google... OpenOffice... Open Source... ODF... Nintendo...
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