IBM’s Tuesday announcement yesterday was more of a hodge-podge than usual, with by far the most significant elements being a whole string of price increases on PS/2 accessories and software and on the Series 1, and price reductions on some models of the top-end – but last generation – 3880 disk controller. On the PS/2, nearly every accessory seems to be more expensive – the colour display is up 10% at $750, the external 3.5 floppy 17% at $435; the PS/2 80286 Expanded Memory Adaptor soars 40% to $1,495, and substantially all maths co-processors, memory expansion adaptors and add-on floppies are increased. All the language compilers and sundry software utilities are also up. On the Series 1 minicomputer line, purchase prices are increased an average 10% for processors and memory upgrades, and much of the software. EDX software is typically up 5%. All purchase price increases took effect yesterday; monthly licence charges go up November. On the 3880 controllers, the E21, G21, H21, J21, and D23, E23, G23, H23 and J23 all going down: the E21 is off 12.3% at $121,500; the J23 falls 5.6% to $289,500, and typically, cuts are biggest on the smallest models. The new prices took effect on July 1.
