Prentice Bisbal wrote:
Hello Prentice,No because Roadrunner was not a Blue Gene system ;). We need to look beyond Roadrunner selling more roadrunner-like systems and Jaguar selling more Jaguars.The success of Roadrunner and Deep Blue probably didn't sell more Roadrunners and Deep Blues, but I'm sure they had an effect on IBMs stock price, and help sell lower-end IBM systems. IBM dominates the Top 500 right now. I'm sure their success with Roadrunner, Deep Blue, and Blue Gene have something to do with that. You are right when you said that these big companies sell their stuff at a huge discount, atleast initially,is what I know. Here in India, where I live and work, IBM had, 3-4 yrs back, sold a BG/L for way less than anything, virtually at the price of a normal cluster. This was done to cut out the competition and to boast about their system being sold i.e, the first ever BG/L being sold in India. The competition, as expected, was very livid that could IBM give it off at such throw away prices. Did IBM make a profit, I doubt it. Its another matter that this prestige didn't give them enough mileage. It didn't start selling BG/L s like hot cakes. It certainly gave them a boasting ground. The subsequent quotes were very high that they couldn't win the contracts. I was once told by a reseller that IBM's higher-ups decided against further discounts(they will need to start making money). :-) So, the point here is that though prestige is ! = profit, it surely helps their reputation. Richard. |
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