Marketplace Trends in IBM pSeries

Much of the marketplace is still choosing p5 and p5+ technology (p52A, p55A, p570 and p595s) - both in new hardware and refurbished markets.

In the last 12 months, IBM announced the p6 processors and has already started to ship the p570 units. Recently, IBM also announced that they will soon begin shipping the p55A and p52A boxes in the new p6 technology. This new technology, with a higher price performance (price divided by relative performance), will logically put downward pressure on the pricing of new and refurbished p5 and p5+ systems.

So, this announcement about the p6 technology can provide leverage in negotiations when purchasing a p5 or p5+ system. Your leverage can come from an understanding that pricing on these systems will decrease in the very near future. You can imply that you can wait for decreased pricing or you can actually do so.

Of course, the same downward trend will also occur in the refurbished marketplace for p5 and p5+ systems. Yet, you can still get a very good price right now.

Many IBM customers have voiced a concern over IBM's trend toward capacity on demand. All new p6 systems will ship with CUoD processors and memory. All previous systems did not use CUoD memory. This IBM requirement locks customers in to buying memory and processor upgrades ONLY from IBM and eliminating any competition from other OEMs or the used marketplace.

It's unfortunate that IBM creates such reliable technology and then darkens their reputation with anti-competitive sales and marketing practices.

Although still new to the marketplace, p6 technology is just starting to be seen in the used marketplace. We expect this trend to increase dramatically by mid 2008.

Lastly, p5 and p5+ technology in the used marketplace is currently about 40-60 percent less than new.