Industry commentator Bob Fertig has been talking to IBM management about the state of play on the 9370s and reports that the delay in getting the machines out to the market has nothing to do with any manufacturing capacity bottlenecks but is simply a logistic one – how to install, maintain and manage thousands of low-cost 9370s while maintaining the same level of service as on current products is the key issue: what’s the point of shipping the machines in volume if you do not have the ability to bring those systems to the point where they are operational and productive? ask the IBMers; as for manufacturing, the hardware of the 9370 can be manufactured at a rate of thousands a year, and it would be perfectly feasible to open factories to make the boards anywhere in the world to meet local demand.
