What is IBM?
Can anyone give a good summary of what IBM actually is?
I get that it's a company, and that's where my knowledge ends. Wikipedia has not helped.
Posted Apr 26, 2016, 12:27 AM UTC
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From Simple English Wikipedia:
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a company from the United States that makes and sells software, computer hardware, infrastructure services, and consulting services. IBM is one of the biggest Information Technology companies in the world. IBM has had the most patents of any technology company for many years, and has made many important inventions and discoveries that have improved computers.
IBM began in 1911, it was called the "Computer Tabulating Recording Company". It was set up by a man named Charles Flint. There were no computers at that time, so IBM made other machines, such as typewriters. In 1924, the company changed its name to International Business Machines (IBM). In 1937, the company's Tabulating Machines were used by the United States government to record information about Americans, so they could make a new law called the Social Security Act.
During World War II, IBM made guns for the American army. During the 1960s, IBM computers were used for American space exploration. From the 1980s until 2005, IBM made personal computers. In 2005, IBM sold their personal computer manufacturing to a Chinese company called Lenovo. Today, IBM mostly makes software, and some powerful supercomputers.
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IT Sweatshop. Avoid if you can.
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Wikipedia goes a lot further than "it's a company," so ... You'll need to be more specific.
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It's a major company that sells software and services, usually to other major companies, sometimes to the government. At one point it also used to sell hardware.
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At one point it also used to sell hardware.
They still sell hardware. Mainframes, midrange systems, storage systems...
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...depends on the "initiative" for the year.
If you're serious about this question then take a look at the 10K statement filed with SEC commission.
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IBM is more of a consulting company now, it's infrastructure services, it consulting, cognitive computing initiative has driven the company away from solely software and hardware. Judging from a recent analysis of company revenue and business lines, only 26% or so is sourced from software. The changing initiative to cognitive and cloud computing will steer IBM more into consulting.
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