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Happy Birthday IBM

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
73,698
43,768
Yeah this is an apple site, but still, its an incredible feat for a corporation to last 100 years. They seemingly reinvented themselves a number of times and continue to thrive.

I remember working as a computer operator dealing with punch cards and hanging tapes. Back then it was really a fun job, working on the big iron.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I owned a PC XT back in the day. While the Macintosh had its allure and was great. There was something that PC had which allowed geeks like me to really get into the nitty gritty of the system. I remember programming in basic and assembler. Compiling my first operating system well before Linux was even a twinkling in Tovald's eye. I even started writing an OS in C and assembler, though I never got to finish it.


ibm100punchedcard.png
ibm100pc.png
 
Amazing! I wouldn't have known about this unless I saw this post. Why the heck doesn't Google celebrate stuff like this, or will they wait until the 103 year to post up something on their homepage? :D
 
IBM is a great American success story. They survive because their business is about solving business problems and not built around a product.
 
Congratulations, IBM.

Here's to your presence in the enterprise from the very beginning and playing it real safe in the consumer market for about 30 years.
 
*LTD* said:
Congratulations, IBM.

Here's to your presence in the enterprise from the very beginning and playing it real safe in the consumer market for about 30 years.
Click to expand...

Playing it safe ultimately was what cost them the consumer sector and provided the rich feeding grounds for Microsoft to flourish. If they purchased the rights to PC-DOS instead of licensing it, life would have been quite different.

While there is no single factor to IBM's rise and fall in the PC consumer market, one thing was sure. Back then the executives did not believe in this toy computer and thought it was a fad. They did not take it serious so they just started dipping their toe in the market when they created the IBM PC.
 
maflynn said:
While there is no single factor to IBM's rise and fall in the PC consumer market, one thing was sure. Back then the executives did not believe in this toy computer and thought it was a fad. They did not take it serious so they just started dipping their toe in the market when they created the IBM PC.
Click to expand...

It was IBM's age and conservative corporate environment that almost led to its demise. Though it did reinvent itself, Big Blue's stature was never the same after the PC.

Happy birthday!
 
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