[309] in OS/2_Discussion
letter from IBM about WARP rumors
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (klund@MIT.EDU)
Fri Oct 28 13:27:46 1994
From: klund@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 94 13:26:25 -0400
To: os2announce@MIT.EDU
This week there will be articles or columns in both business press and
trade press publications that may cause you some degree of concern about
the quality of the new OS/2 Warp product that we announced on October
11. We have also been told that someone is calling companies in the
personal computer industry to tell senior executives that "IBM has
stopped production of Warp" and that a "myriad of problems" exist in
Warp.
I would like to share with you exactly what has happened, and what will
be happening.
The bottom line is: the product has successfully completed all of our
quality assurance testing; the product is being manufactured; we plan to
have it available on store shelves this coming week; and PC
manufacturers will start preloading and shipping to their customers as
early as today.
The final testing of Warp included a massive, public beta test (two
cycles) during which tens of thousands of users, ISV's, OEM's, and
others tested Warp for months. We then conducted a gamma test on a
smaller scale with a representative cross section of users and vendors.
This was all in addition to our internal testing. The final test results
were excellent.
Once the gamma test completed, we began manufacturing Warp, shipping
initial shrinkwrap products to members of the press, consultants and
distributing it widely within IBM.
In our on-going quality testing, we discovered a minor problem. We
quickly analyzed the problem and determined the cause. Though this bug
would have affected only a small number of users, we decided to stop the
manufacturing of Warp and fix the problem now before Warp was widely
distributed in reseller channels. We want to ensure that all of our
customers have a good experience with the new Warp product.
Our media relations team received the first boxes off the line to send
to reviewers, one of whom was Mike Putzer of the Boston Globe. He
experienced the problem and, after we called him with the fix, he
decided to write the story of our decision to restart manufacturing to
include the fix. The article appeared in the October 26 issue, with the
headline "IBM Halts Warp Production."
There is some product already in the distribution channel, but the bulk
of manufactured product went internally to IBM. Those boxes that are in
the channel will be immediately replaced with boxes with the new code.
Any customers that have purchased the product, and have the installation
problem, will be helped with the simple correction, with guidance
provided by the IBM customer support staff. We will also replace
purchased copies, if the customer wishes.
OS/2 Warp will be initially available in the channel next week and
widely available by November 4. IBM is confident that users will be
delighted with the performance and impressive new features of Warp. And
we are absolutely committed to delivering the highest quality product,
which is why we made the decision to fix the problem now. I hope this
information helps. Please let me know if you would like additional
details.
Sincerely,
John A. Soyring
Division Director
IBM Personal Software Products Division
