> 1. Having the superior technical product does not automatically
> translate into marketplace success for a variety of reasons
> including; ability to execute, distribution capacity/capability and
> market perception/mindshare.
True, if you are talking about making incremental improvements in a well established marketplace. But web and data warehousing are relatively immature markets where I think Informix can prove itself to be a clearly superior platform.
> In product terms, their offering is technically adequate and capable
> of exploiting many more processors than NT itself. Oracle's policy
> has always been to develop one code base that is portable. If they
> are sensible they will look to develop additional utilities that
> keep making an NT users life easier.
In the Microsoft world, portability means nothing. If it isn't optimized for NT, it won't succeed. MS SQL Server has performance and ease of administration. Currently, Oracle on NT is inferior in these two areas. If you wanted scalability and 24X7 reliability, you wouldn't choose NT in the first place.
> It seems to me that owning the stock of either company should be
> based on a execution judgement call rather than a product feature
> comparison.
Well, I am making the argument that Oracle has been executing poorly. To summarize:
1) I expect Informix US to win big over Oracle8 in trade rag comparisons. This is significant because Oracle7 was dominant.
2) Informix understands the importance of a close relationship with Netscape. Oracle wants to assimilate them as recently demonstrated by Uncle Larry's goofy attempt to trash talk the stock down. Since Barksdale and Andreeson have no interest in working for Larry, expect them to partner more exclusively with Informix in bids for new intranet business.
3) Oracle's network computer promotion is a grand waste of time for them (Ellison ego trip). Take a look at the Network Computer Inc. website and then go to Sun Microsystems website. You really have to wonder what Oracle is bringing to the table here. As a believer in Network Computing, I wish Oracle would stop as they are doing more damage then good.
4) Oracle is way behind of Microsoft and Netscape in Ecommerce despite all their latest flimflam.
Oracle fails to make key acquisitions, is reluctant to establish key partnerships, was slow to move on the internet, and its software development cycles are much too slow.
As a stockholder, what is the upside to Oracle? |
