Founded in 1911 as a punch-card data processing operation, International Business Machines, or IBM as it's more popularly known, has since become one of the true giants of the personal computing world. Its history of providing information technology to a variety of businesses is quite long, including projects with the US Air Force and MIT. Since the 1960s, however, its success has essentially risen and fallen with the motions of the industry it helped found: computing IBM invented many of the most critical technologies in personal computing. The first hard drive, for example, as well as the cursor (originally a far cry from the pointed arrow we recognize today), and floppy disk. Its 24-year old iSeries minicomputer (known by various names throughout its long history), is the world's single largest type of non-personal computer. IBM also designs and markets many different popular software programs. These include Lotus, WebSphere, and Tivoli products--all three of which are used in businesses around the world. Though frequently connected with personal computers (the familiar contrast between IBM and Apple computers comes to mind), IBM is actually involved in many non-personal computing spheres, such as business and industry. The list of companies that IBM has acquired over the years is itself quite impressive. If anything, this points to the fact that the company has its fingers in many of the most interesting, lucrative, and topical spheres in the current computing markets. In 2004, the company was awarded the highest number of US patents for the 12th consecutive year. |
