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Technology Stocks : Oracle Corporation (ORCL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Olin who wrote (8846)	11/13/1998 2:16:00 PM
From: lml	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19080

Michael: My response to this type of customer mentality is that you get what you pay for. Frankly, I surprised that an operation such as GE Capital would risk the integrity of its "online" operations because a product is just free. I would expect this type of purchasing decision from a smaller entrepreneural operation that wants database management, but not is not so critical on the quality at the outset & is more concerned with the capital outlay. Can't beat something that's "free." I would suspect that such small businesses that become successful & demand a quality & reliable database infrastructure capable of handling more complex storage, management & retrieval needs would migrate to the ORCL model. But this is where MSFT's opportunity lies -- wean the babies so they become dependent upon the SQL model; & convince them that everything gonnA be OK [EGBOK] as they mature. ORCL's opportunity will be to convince these fledgling operations otherwise; or MSFT will create that opportunity for ORCL should SQL stumble after a few furlongs around the track. On the other end of the spectrum, I really am not convinced that larger Fortune 500 type operations already using ORCL or IBM will go with SQL just because its free. Such operations didn't get to be the size they are by going with the low-end. And it is not unforeseeable that the "free" in a SQL 7.0 purchase will cost such an operation dearly in the road ahead. In summary, SQL will stake out its market in the low-end among small business users. ORCL's strategy is/will be to keep it there & prevent SQL from establishing itself as a viable, competitive alternative among middle-sized & larger operations. JMO.