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The More Things Change …….

Woody recently commented on the changes to the computer world brought about by companies such as Google, Apple and others using devices powered by Android, IOS etal. His comments were centered around Microsoft and its ability to cope with the apparent power shift in the application market. Being a computer industry dinosaur, I have had the dubious privilege seeing the shift of fortunes in the industry since the mid 60s to now.

Back “in the day”, the computer industry was driven by the hardware. Applications were developed to suit the platform. The machines were huge, power hungry and very expensive. I worked for Control Data Corporation. They built the most powerful computers in the world that were bought and used by the government and academic scientific institutions. IBM built large computers for business use. Other companies such as Univac and Honeywell competed for the business. In the late 1970s something happened that within a very short time sent most of the major players in the business to the dumpster. IBM did something very uncharacteristic for them. They introduced the personal computer over which they had little control. They built the hardware, a fledgling company calling itself Microsoft provided the operating system and the applications were left to programmers at large to develop. Very few of us saw the handwriting on the wall.

The rise of the internet, the development of UNIX, the explosion of applications for the personal computer, the advances in microcomputer technology and associated components changed everything. Computing was much cheaper. Hardware no longer ruled. Software was the new game. This drove many of the major computer industry players into bankruptcy. Control Data, a worldwide company with 36,000 employees was taken apart from about 1986 to 1992. In 1986 I was part of a small group of 13 people that developed “third party” peripheral equipment for the IBM Series-1 computer primarily used as a collection and distribution point for point of sale terminals. Our group was sold to Cambex Corporation. Even DEC, a manufacturer of UNIX based computers could not survive

So, here we are nearly 30 years later. I am retired but still love watching the ‘game”. Microsoft has had it their way all these years. I see them possibly facing the same fate as they were partly (or wholly) responsible for so many years ago. The sheer bulk of the corporation may be the undoing. Big corporations don’t seem to see what they don’t want to see. If they are slow to respond, they may begin to thrash. The new sheriff in town may be able to fix things but cultures are hard to change. Stay tuned.