The OS/2 operating system has been around for 18 months now, and the shortage of applications software is beginning to threaten its continuing existence as a serious challenger for space on the desktop, suggests the West German weekly Computerwoche. Microsoft Corp is putting its money on independent software houses, and IBM is trying the hard-sell marketing approach: meanwhile, producers of Unix and MS-DOS Extender products are cashing in on OS/2s embarrassment. That OS/2 is a commercial failure is beyond doubt, the paper suggests, but IBM and Microsoft are not panicking and are convinced that success will arrive in the long term. OS/2 has not taken off to the enormous extent that we had expected, states Cameron Myhrvold, marketing director of Microsoft’s Advanced OS/2 System Group. But we know what is needed to make it a success, and we will succeed. Low priority Quite simply, what is needed is applications. But a year and a half after the launch of what was originally planned as the replacement of MS-DOS, these applications have still not materialised. The leap from MS-DOS to OS/2 seems to be too great for most users, and a vicious circle is in evidence: because demand is so low, development of planned OS/2 software is given low priority among software houses; and because there is precious little software, potential customers see no value in migrating to OS/2. Myhrvold accepts that this is the main issue, and Microsoft is redoubling its support of independent software houses; by the end of the year, predicts Myhrvold, things will be a lot better, with 40 to 50 applications, faster and more powerful than the corresponding MS-DOS versions, to be launched at Comdex/Fall, giving good reason at last for users to move to OS/2. Until that day comes, however, Microsoft is committed to improving OS/2 compatiblity with MS-DOS. This increased compatibility should be incorporated in Version 1.2 of OS/2 Standard Edition, which is promised for this quarter. But not everyone shares Microsoft’s optimism for the future of OS/2: partner IBM, which sees the OS/2 as the standard operating system for its PS/2 computer range, has launched a massive advertising campaign in the US to whip up flagging interest. While the PS/2 is selling pretty well, IBM is understandably disappointed with sales of OS/2. With a series of full-page spreads and supporting articles in the trade press, and considerable price reductions on OS/2 hardware and software, IBM is hoping to retrieve the situation. But it is doubtful whether this will have any effect, for the basic perceived weaknesses of OS/2 – too large, too expensive, not enough software – remain, at least for the time being unsolved, and the current campaign looks like a last ditch throw before IBM backtracks and promotes the operating system specifically as the micro end of the micro-to mainframe link for its major customers. Others are seeing software houses and users increasingly turning to alternatives such as MS-DOS Extender solutions, which enable MS-DOS applications to address 16Mb without much difficulty, and to Unix. They are doing this, opinion has it, for the simple reason that they can achieve their objectives that way without the expense that OS/2 entails. Our first customers were in despair, says Terence Colligan, president of the MS-DOS Extender developer Rational Systems Inc. There was no solution to their problems. All three suppliers of MS-DOS Extender products – Eclipse, Phar Lap, and Rational Systems – were started about three years ago in order provide a temporary solution to developers and users who were held back by the 640Kb MS-DOS limit. Today the three are doing between $1m and $9m a year. Colligan notes that it was about a year ago that demand really shot up – and OS/2 had been on the market for six months. Since then, even software giants like Lotus and Ashton-Tate have taken note of OS/2’s failure and have decided, with the help of Extenders, to keep the MS-DOS option open. Originally planned as OS/2-only applications, 1-2-3 Release 3 and dBase IV Version 1.1 will no
w be available for MS DOS. Other major software houses are expected to follow suit this year. So Extender producers do not yet see OS/2 as a direct threat. Richard Smith, Phar Lap’s president, says, To begin with, we thought it would only last six to 12 months – now he is planning his budgets for 1992.
