You're probably correct about the academic mindset and IBM's failure to successfully market to them that the mainframe CAN do all the "cool" things they perceive as the latest-and-greatest-idea(s), and is actively "keeping up" with the best of those ideas.
Add to that the open-source mindset that software SHOULD BY RIGHT be "free" and you have a tough market to break into (again) from a for-profit company perspective. The 20th century "80% discount" that IBM offered to academic institutions pre-consent-decree would today probably be laughed right out of the Bursar's or Treasurer's office. 20% of too-much-already is a lot more than they pay for the little hardware beasts and the nothing they pay for the software that runs on them. It's a tough sell now. Would have been worlds easier if addressed intelligently back then and continued into this century. It was an IBM chairman who declared to investors that "IBM will never be in a low-margin business". They are getting what they asked for. Peter -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Bob Bridges Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 5:27 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: "Everyone wants to retire mainframes" I don't pay much attention to IBM's marketing practices so I can't opine knowledgeably, but I offer this counter, a story I'm sure I've told here before: Some years ago my oldest son got interested in learning mainframes. (I think he must have heard me rant too often about my increasing job security, due to colleges ignoring mainframes and thus making old fogies like me less and less replaceable even as our salaries keep rising.) So I started asking around: Where might I rent a couple of mainframe IDs on a commercial data center, and how much might I pay for it? I figured I'd start coaching him in the basics, and see how far his interest went. I didn't make a big campaign of it, but I called here and there for a few weeks. My questions must have gotten around, because one evening I got a call from someone at IBM with a very direct offer: If I would contact my local university and get them to run a few classes in mainframes - almost any relevant class - the university would rent space at a data center and IBM would ~give~ me two accounts that I could use to teach my son. Heck, I could teach a class or two myself. I called NC A&T State U, where I'd worked a couple years. Couldn't arouse any interest. Could be IBM isn't marketing themselves very strenuously. Could be they're not losing market share and don't need to. I don't know. But it sounds to me like they're doing ~something~ at any rate. But as far as I can tell, the colleges have this notion that mainframes are out of date, and can't get out of that mindset or notice the facts. --- -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Tom Brennan Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 11:54 When I bought my Yamaha piano in 1989, I heard a story that Yamaha had been supplying free pianos to universities for years. It was more than them just being nice, they knew that someone practicing every day on the school grand piano would likely go on to buy one, or be the decision maker for an orchestra, night club, or whatever. I always thought that was super smart of them. What I always thought was rather dumb, is that IBM doesn't do similar with educational use of all their software. And that's just copied bits ... no wood, metal, delivery, tuning, etc. -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
