If the 38,000 forecast is correct, there has been a substantial slow-down in the rate of installation since the beginning of the year – in the four to five months between first ships and the end of the last year, IBM is thought to have shipped 30,000 of the machines – but the fact that trouble was brewing showed up as early as October when Computer Intelligence figures suggested that the comparatively tiny System 38 base was taking as many of the things as was the enormous System 36 base – if the AS/400 had been the answer to a System 36 maiden’s prayer, the ratio should have been three or four 36s for each 38 replacement.
