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- Xref: sparky comp.os.os2.misc:39863 comp.os.os2.advocacy:10569
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!wam.umd.edu!rsrodger
- From: rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari)
- Subject: Re: Future of OS/2 and IBM????????????
- Message-ID: <1992Dec18.130426.2110@wam.umd.edu>
- Sender: usenet@wam.umd.edu (USENET News system)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: rac1.wam.umd.edu
- Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
- References: <1992Dec16.072137.28867@sequent.com> <1992Dec16.152535.12204@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca> <1992Dec18.035926.1900@sequent.com>
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 13:04:26 GMT
- Lines: 90
-
- In article <1992Dec18.035926.1900@sequent.com> furballs@sequent.com (Paul Penrod) writes:
- >>Ahem .... stable? I believe that around 1987 IBM stock was trading at
- >>approximately $178 per share. Yesterday it was trading at $56 per
- >>share. God help us if this is stability. :)
- >>
- >
- >Yes, stable. You obviously don't play the stock market with
- >professional investors or you would realize that stock price is not
- >relavent, unless you are going short term. DIVIDENDS are the
- >stability. And, IBM earned it's BLUE CHIP status by producing
- >DIVIDENDS that are, up till now, consistently better than the
- >average.
-
-
- Not true. IBM has performed extremely poorly since I bought
- at $169. Not only has the value of the stock dropped to less than
- half it's original value (what's it at now, $58?.. I don't even
- *check* anymore--just wait for the glossy propaganda they call
- a stockholders report), but the dividends have, in general,m
- been pretty lousy. Even if you totalled all of the money
- from the dividends over the lifetime of the stock, it comes
- nowhere *near* recouping the loss due to the drop in value.
- In fact, as dividends go, it's at the bottom--below every
- utility but one (the one that got sued).
-
-
- >>Cash cow? I don't think so. The most optimistic numbers I've heard are
- >>2 million units sold. Lots went out at what ....$49. Others have gone
- >>to retail outlets and since the retail outlets have to make a profit
- >>the full price of these units did not go to IBM. Subtract costs for
- >>disks, manuals, suppport!!!!, bug fixes!!!!, shipping, order taking,
- >>advertising, beta testing, etc. and there is no way that this product
- >>*at this time* is a cash cow. If IBM got an average of $50 per unit
- >>sold then they received at most $100,000,000 from OS/2 sales. This is
- >>not much in a company that has over $50,000,000,000 in sales. It is at
- >>most .2% of their sales.
- >>
- >Think again. IBM makes a large portion of it's money on hardware
- >and service. They could give away the OS for all intents and
- >purposes, so long as they get the service contracts and sell
- >hardware. That's why their called International Business MACHINES.
-
- Think again. He;s right--OS/2 is not something that's
- making them much in the way of profits, or anything at all.
- You responded with a, "IBM makes a large portion of it's
- money on hardware and service"--which is irrelavent to the
- point. IBM is not making much on OS/2.
-
-
- >>>have announced plans to integrate it into their other system
- >>>platform. As long as people continue to buy OS/2, IBM will continue
- >>>to promote it's growth and useability.
- >>
- >>Maybe, in fact, probably .... but more as a matter of strategy and ego
- >>rather than the dubious fact that it's a cash cow.
- >>
- >
- >Old marketing strategy they never teach in college:
- >
- >"I'll give you the razor, so long as I can sell you the blades..."
-
-
- Sounds like MicroSoft, not IBM. IBM sells you the house,
- but nothing to decorate it with.
-
- I wont comment on which strategy is more moral, but I
- think everyone here can tell you which one is the more
- effective method of turning a miniscule company into the
- largest software company in the world.
-
-
- >One last thing. According to the sattelite news service, IBM is
- >having problems producing enough OS/2 packages to sell and bundle
- >with their PS/2 hardware, which is selling a record clip. Yes, I
- >would call that a cash cow.
-
-
- Ok, lots of packages at little profit. Hardly a cash cow.
-
- >--------------------------------------------------------------------
- > Bureaucracy: noun, plural - Bureaucracies.
- > The process of turning energy into solid waste.
- >---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- --
- "If you can't eat sand, why the hell are you living in a desert?"
-
- Rule 1: "Don't have more children than you can feed."
- Nuclear redevelopment for a better world!
-