IBM’s delicate positioning problems between its proprietary AS/400 and open RS/6000 lines are continuing, according to to a number of industry sources in the UK. Here, IBM’s policy is to sell two-thirds of its RS/6000s indirect, through distributors and value-added resellers. The other third of direct sales go mostly to the big corporates, claims IBM. But it appears that IBM’s direct sales force has been doing a little too well in taking the RS/6000 into traditional AS/400 territory, and IBM is having to apply the brakes. The problem is, IBM is selling more RS/6000s than AS/400s, claimed one source, speaking to sister publication Unigram.X, and now the sales team has been told it can only sell the RS/6000 as a single-user workstation for applications such as CAD/CAM. If they do sell it as a multi-user business machine, they don’t get any commission. Market research group IDC claims that IBM sold 15,000 RS/6000 units in 1990, mostly as technical workstations but business applications are gradually becoming available – IBM recently struck a deal with Lotus Development Corp for it to port the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet to the RS/6000.
