Addi,
Right. The PC makers bring down the price of their hardware
until it approaches the price of an NC. Just how low do you
think thes clowns can go & still make money? Intel's gross
margin on an MMX is about $20 per unit vs +$500 per unit on
a Pentium (300mhz). They can outfit the cheap PC's any way
they want, but someone has to PAY for the hardware. The concept
of FAT technology is that there is lots & lots of stuff inside
your PC that will give you all the bell & whistles on your own
desktop. History has shown that manufacturing efficiencies
have reduced the cost of components. But the PCs, up until
recently, have remained around $2000 or so. Why? You get
more computing power for the same money, right? For PC makers
to continue to make money & charge LESS for their machines,
they have to thin them out or use older technology. Both of
those solutions are loaded with minefields when you consider
MSFT's bloatware.
CPQ is already feeling the squeeze, as are disk driver, semiconductor
manufacturers, & semiconductor equipment makers. NC's are partly
responsible for this. Now that they are on the market, the
days of expensive FAT clients doing simple tasks in business
are numbered. The terminal market alone is estimated at more
than 30 million seats & SUNW's JavaStation is just out of the
box. As software becomes available, NC's will become increasingly
popular.
People who want their own personal nuclear power plant at home can
continue to buy ever-bigger & ever-more-powerful gatesmobiles.
IT managers, however, are looking for good value. They'll see
cheap hardware attached to powerful, reliable servers, low
m&e costs, and scalable applications that they can run from their
MVS/XA machines all the way down to their JavaStations. It's
a more efficient technology, Addi. That's why it will succeed. |
