The new offerings might indeed encourage some customers to go with IBM, said Joe Pucciarelli, an analyst with IDC. "Is it by itself the singular reason people will buy from IBM? Probably not," he said. "But it improves the overall offer. It does make the IBM offer even more competitive."

He expects these offers from IBM to represent the first of many promotions and offerings from companies trying to improve their price competitiveness. "The first quarter was a little slower than people wanted, so you see across the board everybody gearing up around competitive repositioning," he said.

The IDG News Service