Robert Moffat, IBM’s Systems & Technology (read: servers and other hardware) chief, laid the smack down on HP’s Mark Hurd in a recent ChannelWeb story. When the first word in an industry news story is “feisty”, your next thought usually isn’t, “Hey, this must be about IBM.” However, Moffat is the epitome of feistiness with quotes like this: “The stuff that Mr. Hurd said was going away kicked his ass…” and going on to discuss mainframe and System p Unix system sales growth. Moffat also owned up to weakness in IBM’s x86 server sales miss, explaining it was execution problems on IBM’s part rather than product problems, market trends, or anything HP did to blunt IBM’s efforts. While we’re not sure what Hurd did or said to prompt Moffat’s fiery riposte, we are certain that this will get HP’s attention and probably a return salvo.

Some will argue that this kind of back-and-forth is a waste of time and doesn’t do anyone any good. For our part, we kind of like the heightened rhetoric. It stirs the pot and makes the market more interesting to track. It also shows that these guys have a personal stake in their business units and products – it’s personal to them. People who have passion for what they do tend to do things better. This applies to athletes, baristas, hair stylists, and even server vendors. It’s a good thing. For customers, it reinforces the idea that these guys want your business and aren’t taking it for granted – every revenue dollar and server unit counts. The bottom line is that the bottom line, for customers at least, is likely to get smaller as vendors compete maniacally to win deals.