On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 12:02:47 EST, Alerta Redsegura <alerta@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> said: > "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." > Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 Please note that this has gotten out of context in the last 60 years or so. At the time, "computer" meant "one of a kind system far beyond the normally available technology"... At the time, IBM was already a major manufacturer of mechanical sorting and tabulating equipment, and what Watson meant was "There's a world market for 5 of what we now call supercomputers". He'd seen the price tags for the R&D that was being done, and knew to within a few dollars what that class of high-end machine would run, and how many sites would have that sort of budget. 60 years later, there's still only a market for 5-20 of these - IBM has sold a few ASCI-class systems, but only in the single-digits. And they're happy with that, because nobody else is selling in double-digits in that arena either.
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