Autor: Gregorio Kus (Grego_at_RMnet.it)
Data: Fri 21 Mar 1997 - 04:39:40 MET
The Second Life of OS/2: From Practically Hopeless to Just Plain Practical
After a long, costly fight, IBM has thrown in the towel in its quixotic
quest to unseat Microsoft with OS/2. After spending millions of dollars
in marketing and development, IBM could never get to the right place at
the right time to effectively compete with Microsoft.
In the early days, that meant trying to position OS/2 as "a better Windows
than Windows" and incorporating the Windows APIs in the OS--thereby
eliminating the need for ISVs to develop OS/2 applications. And then, in
1995, IBM squandered millions trying to promote OS/2 Warp as a consumer
product in the face of the oncoming Windows 95. More ominously, this
foray caused IBM to virtually ignore its chance to solidify OS/2 Server's
advantage before Microsoft could energize its NT Server push.
Of course, this is not to say that IBM didn't sell any OS/2. After all,
IBM is IBM--and it can sell almost anything. And indeed it did sell OS/2,
to its biggest, most loyal "true blue" shops in highly influential
industries such as banking, finance and insurance. As a result, OS/2
built a sizable installed base--roughly 10 million seats--that it now has
to take care of. And this is especially important since this base is
concentrated within powerful customers who rely on and pay IBM big bucks
(OS/2 is a key product in accounts which generate more than $25 billion
in annual IBM revenues) to do just that. Therefore, IBM has to continue
to support OS/2.
Now, after years of trying to go head-to-head with Microsoft with
strategies which were more complex than the Human Genome Project, IBM has
chosen a very simple and timely message for the new mission of OS/2. IBM
is now promoting OS/2 as the best network computing
environment--particularly for its installed base. What does this mean?
First, it has incorporated the Java Virtual Machine directly into the OS,
alongside the OS/2 and Open32 (Windows knock-offs) APIs, and is
encouraging those few OS/2 developers to write for Java. Second, it is
actively encouraging and helping customers rapidly migrate their custom
applications to Java via its new OS/2 Warp Network Computing Projects
Business Unit. The first such project--with CERA Bank--was recently
completed. And lastly, by improving OS/2's ability to "fit in" with
Windows by adding new administrative features to Warp Server which allows
these systems to fully manage Windows clients and by allowing these
clients to access Warp Server resources via the familiar "Network
Neighborhood" utility.
Combined, these initiatives should help IBM stave off Microsoft's erosion
of the OS/2 base by minimizing customers' need to abandon OS/2 to get the
latest features offered by the competition. And the Java initiatives
certainly leverage IBM's growing strength in network-centric computing
and its massive investments in Java expertise while simultaneously sating
customer curiosity over how to capitalize on the Java phenomenon. But now
IBM must execute, delivering proof points, which showcase Java and OS/2 as
a compelling business platform. If it does, it could indeed hold off the
Microsoft tide, perhaps even grow the pockets of OS/2 in mixed
environments and maybe--just maybe--reincarnate an OS/2 derivative as a
thin network client, and thereby finally get it into the consumer
market--a market which IBM has coveted since before the days of the
infamous PC jr.
z SUMMIT Strategies
(Strategic analyses of the Forces that Drive Information Technology)
"zapodal"
Grego
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