Mary,
Yes, services is the main growth engine for IBM. However, the most recent report was a surprise because hardware growth was stronger than expected. The NT/Novell ports will most likely help keep existing customers 'in the fold'. Your points about share buybacks are also quite true, Jules Garfunkel has been saying that for what seems like an eternity, what can I say? One of IBM's main strengths is it's diversity. Look at this year, when rumors of 'slow PC sales' surfaced, pretty much all companies in the PC business took a hit. IBM on the other hand, is congratulated when it's PC losses are minimized. They may never catch Dell in PC production efficiency, but they will still make bucks off Dell by selling them parts. Final point - since you have apparently worked in the mainframe arena for some time, my assumption is that you are familiar with how companies use them. With that in mind, do you think a Fortune 500 CIO is going to 'bet the company' by unplugging his S/390 complex and putting his/her data on Intel based servers, that not only run a new architecture, but use *Windows* software??? Better to give it a few years, (well, maybe more than a few years) my friend <gggg>.... By the way, I have no ax to grind either way, as IBM and Intel were the only two techs I did not dump during the big run in January...
Regards,
John
PS - I found it interesting that Intel wants in on the *server farm* business.... Intel in services??? Why would they do that??? |
