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Market for 5 computers?
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:25:53 -0800
________________________________________ From: peter.capek () gmail com [peter.capek () gmail com] On Behalf Of Peter Capek [capek () ieee org] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 12:45 PM To: David Farber Subject: Market for 5 computers? For IP, if you agree... This is not particularly timely, but was referenced in an IP comment yesterday. What follows is from an IBM Q&A, and I think it pretty well explains the silly assertion that Thomas Watson said the world only needed 5 computers. (Full disclosure: I used to work for IBM.) Peter Capek Q. Did Thomas Watson say in the 1950s that he foresaw a market potential for only five electronic computers? A. We believe the statement that you attribute to Thomas Watson is a misunderstanding of remarks made at IBM's annual stockholders meeting on April 28, 1953. In referring specifically and only to the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine -- which had been introduced the year before as the company's first production computer designed for scientific calculations -- Thomas Watson, Jr., told stockholders that "IBM had developed a paper plan for such a machine and took this paper plan across the country to some 20 concerns that we thought could use such a machine. I would like to tell you that the machine rents for between $12,000 and $18,000 a month, so it was not the type of thing that could be sold from place to place. But, as a result of our trip, on which we expected to get orders for five machines, we came home with orders for 18." ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- Market for 5 computers? David Farber (Feb 28)