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Technology Stocks : IBM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jules B. Garfunkel who wrote (6492)	6/26/2000 11:45:00 AM
From: Jonathan Edwards	Respond to of 8220

recall IBM's Blue Lightning and PowerPC chips ... which eventually bowed to outside competition The PowerPC is presently used in every system IBM makes except PCs (AS/400, RS/6000, and S/390). The Blue Lightning was an x86 clone, and if IBM hadn't given up the rights to make Pentium-class clones there might well be a descendant of the BL in IBM's PCs...

To: Jules B. Garfunkel who wrote (6492)	6/26/2000 12:38:00 PM
From: Arrow Hd.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8220

Jules, we will just have to disagree. Yes, I would have said the same about the Power PC chip for example, in it's time. The same for OS/2 which was well accepted in certain industries such as banking. But nothing lasts forever and that is why there is R&D. IBM no longer sells 308X mainframes though they were huge in the early 80s. Nor the 3090, ES/9000 or the first four 9672 technology models of the current CMOS mainframes. This Fall IBM will be selling 64 bit architecture mainframes and in 2002 more exciting Server platform evolutions will make the cost/expense equation even more advantageous. These IBM products did not bow to outside competition as much as they bowed to better IBM products. Certainly, at times the product plan is not as competitive as desired. So IBM exits the networking arena and partners with Cisco. Also, to better participate in the PC space it does a deal with Dell. Now Hitachi. Even EMC though some problems arose with supply. And the new memory is going into an Intel based Netfinity product first. And Intel has had it's problems too. Didn't they have a Data Integrity error a while back? For those with a non-technical bent, a Data Integrity error is a euphemism for wrong ####### answer. But they survived. The only uncertainty that would be detrimental to the above equation is if the Street thought that IBM was loosing it's edge in R&D technology development. But they are not loosing their edge. The uncertainty is the concern about IBM's ability to grow revenue effectively and consistently so that earnings growth has fundamental meaning. The Street wants to see if the second quarter can separate itself from the issues of the last three quarters. And if the second half has the promise that many of us think it has. Those are the current issues in my mind that create uncertainty.