It was the junction of four different companies. The Bundy Manufacturing Company, the Computing Scale Corporation, the International Time Recording Company and the Tabulating Machine Company merged to become one of the largest technology companies, you certainly know, IBM. The acronym for International Business Machines, turns 100 this Thursday.
IBM's history is marked by a huge success in the middle of last century, when the company became synonymous with computer products of high quality at a competitive price (or nearly so). Who never once heard of IBM computers that occupied entire floors of buildings?
With the surge of personal computing, IBM has lagged behind. While Microsoft and Apple bet heavily on the PC ("a computer in every home," said Bill Gates), Big Blue struck the foot of the future of computers was still in the big machine that she had. Today, with tablets and smartphones everywhere, it is not hard to see that the company could not see the PC as an ally of the mainframe, but a competitor who deserved to be exterminated. It did not work.
IBM PC 5150: Released in December 1981 with 4.7 MHz processor
Today it is rare for us to speak here at IBM TB because the computer software giant is much more focused on the enterprise. It creates robust servers, develop software and then sell it for thousands of dollars for companies. In 2005, its personal computer division bought by China's Lenovo, which highlights the neglect of the Big Blue with PCs
According to Fortune, IBM holds the title of 18 th largest U.S. company (31 th in the world) and also the 7th most profitable U.S.. Not bad! One of the centers of research and development of the company is here in Brazil, specifically in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Congratulations to IBM! What the company learns to reinvent itself (corporate cliché, I know) and do not let the "post-PC" (according to Steve Jobs) pass.
