🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <uig3PB1w164w@Control.Com> ics.ralph@control.com writes:
>...Rare is the company that has a coherent OSI product strategy...and
>that is the reason they don't sell OSI products.  You can sell rocks
>as pets if you have a coherent product strategy.

I find the parallel between pet rocks and OSI quite intriguing.
Thank you for introducing an analogy that quite accurately captures
my attitude towards OSI.

There really has been a massive marketing effort for OSI, which is
why everyone in the industry knows about it -- and many people yearn
for it -- despite its relative value.  But this effort was done not
to sell products but only to sell an idea, and it wasn't done by
companies but by the individuals designing the technology.  I think
what you're seeing now is what happens when the idea of OSI as a
technology meets the reality of sound commerical marketing practice.

Although there are exceptions, most companies sell people what the
people want rather than trying to stuff something else (like pet
rocks) down unwilling throats.  Successful companies don't create
new markets artifically.  You don't see pet rocks much any more.
Since there is an existing market for networking products quite
similar to OSI products, it's more productive to both the companies
and their customers to provide products that fit into the existing
market rather than creating a new, parallel market for OSI products.

I don't believe i'm saying anything stunning.  In fact, i think this
is all obvious once you've fully realized that there's nothing
special about OSI products that makes them inherently better for
customers.  Once you realize this, the question is no longer "Why
don't companies market OSI harder?", it's "Why are companies
marketing OSI at all?"

(Let me make it *very* clear that i am speaking as an individual
here and not as a representative of Novell.)
						don provan
						donp@novell.com