18 May 2005
The world's computer conglomerates are continuing to put an increasing amount of pressure on and investment towards improving the usability of their newest offerings, a new report has suggested.
And according to the Register, this trend has been exemplified today by the IT giant IBM who has revealed that the company is making "significant" new inroads in usability, in simplifying installations and improving network management for customers.
Steve Mills, IBM's head of software, made the comments in response to accusations from analysts that IBM's complex software was too troublesome for many consumers.
"It's part of our DNA and part of what we do as a company," said Mr Mills. "This is an endless struggle of how do we get the balance between delivering features for leading edge customers and providing scalability for the mass market."
The IT chief added that several steps have already been taken to eliminate customer isolation and to provide greater consistency for customers across products including increasing the number of re-used lines of code to 50 million.
"Re-use is an enormous advantage in the reduction of complexity and improving usability," he added.
Several other methods to improve usability are also in the pipeline, added Mr Mills, although precise details and potential release dates were not disclosed.© DeHavilland Information Services plc
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