From: soliver@unixg.ubc.ca (Oliver S. Sui)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps
Subject: IBM Announcement: Warp Production Status
Date: 28 Oct 1994 03:16:10 GMT
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 101
Message-ID: <38pqdq$686@nnrp.ucs.ubc.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: interchg.ubc.ca
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]


Subj : Warp Manufacturing Statu 

Date: Oct 27, 1994

FYI: This is a note from John Soyring that was sent out
earlier today: (John is the Division Director, IBM Personal
Software Products)

---------------------------Start---------------------------
 The following is the body of a letter I fax'ed earlier this
 week to senior executives of PC companies. It is also
 being sent to others worldwide.

 Today, I have received many notes stating that they
 admire that we are being forthright, and they applaud
 the action IBM has taken to fix even a minor problem.
 These people have encouraged me to post the body
 of the letter on public BBS's.

 I hope that this information helps others understand what
 happened and what we are doing. We are confident that
 once people try Warp, they will find it to be a high quality
 product and a great value.

 John

 *******************************************************

 Dear ________:

 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

------------------------------ End ----------------------------------