Delays and changes of course in its Unix software and strategy have been excessive even by IBM’s standards, but the company had more bad news yesterday when it announced that AIX Unix 1.2 for the PS/2 had been delayed – none of IBM’s AIX implementations for personal computers or 370s have shipped on the original date promised. AIX PS/2 1.2 and the companion Network File System, the Transparent Computing Facility and TCP/IP 1.2 and X25, all promised for delivery last quarter, are delayed until March 30 and the Application Program Interface function for AIX PS/2 X25, announced in March 1988, will not be available even then – IBM now promises only a date for it in March. The decision to delay these products is based on the need for additional testing, required to ensure the delivery of quality products, IBM says.
IBM will launch a personal computer with two-way radio communication capabilities and designed to be used in trucks, aircraft, ships and cars, sometime this quarter, Gartner Group analyst John Pemberton forecasts. The machine, he says, is designed to be used with Geostar Corp’s radio determination satellite, which enables shipments on the move to be located remotely, and prov ides satellite-to-mobile data commu nications facilities. The Geostar system currently uses terminals man ufactured by Sony Corp, but is ex pected to switch to the IBM boxes. Gartner reckons that IBM could do over $1,000m business in mobile sat ellite services terminals by 1995.
