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IBM Puts PC Business Up for Sale
valdean writes "When I was growing up (in the 80s), there were two kinds of computers that my friends (or, more specifically, our parents) had at home: Apple and the IBM-Compatible. IBM defined the PC at that time, and deserves a large share of credit for taking the PC out of the hobby shop and into the mainstream. Now it looks like IBM is getting out of the PC business altogether. CBS Marketwatch has another report."
The reason people buy Thinkpads are because they are IBM thinkpads. So, lets say Dell buys the business, we get "Dell Thinkpad"... Does that sould stupid to anyone other than me?
Nothing for you to see here, Please move along.
I guess I'll have to buy Toshiba instead.
I'd advise against it. I had a Toshiba laptop once and it broke down more often than all my other laptops combined. The powerconnector went, the floppy disk and the display. The one good thing about Toshiba is the exellent global service, they actually don't give you lip when you try to cache in on the international warranty and the techsupport isn't bad either. On the other hand, good as the service was, having the thing in the shop half the time sucked.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
This is interesting only for the fact that it would allow IBM to further distance itself from Microsoft and Intel. There is no doubt in my mind the big-wigs at IBM are really annoyed their predecessors got punked by Redmond. If they're successful in selling the unit, it would be interesting to see if they would begin migrating their server product lines away from Microsoft as well. There is already much publicized talk about IBM corporate going from Microsoft OS's to linux, perhaps this is just a step away from license dependent products. It isn't as though IBM needs the revenue from the PC business.
IBM is a SERVICES company that has the mindset of Hardware company. I used to work for Global Services in a senior technical role. Or skills at IT Architecture, problem solving, Systems Integration, etc. were always an open door for the Hardware guys to try to sell overpriced equipment. It p*ssed off the customers. When Sam Palisano ran Global Services (before he became CEO) he and Gerstner both stated the future of IBM was services and software. So they went out and bought PwC's IT services group for it's business base (and laid off the staff). The long term trend has been and will be pro-Service and definitely anti-hardware. IBM even laid off folks at the R&D Labs about a year ago, so even the patent and inventions for hardware are not as important as before. Sam's idea of the R&D guys is who cares if we can write IBM from single atoms, no one buys Atoms. Unless IBM can sell them Atom Services it has no place in this company. Get rid of it. Palisano was known as a "slash and burn" guy who if it wasn't making the revenue it was gone in a heartbeat. He was the guy who sold off the first generation IBM PC business back in the late 80's when he ran that group. Make the company money by getting rid of the "waste" was how he climbed up to CEO.
Don't get me wrong IBM makes some very good equipment top to bottom but the mainframe market (Z-Series) is stagnant at best, mid-range is flat (AS-400), servers (Unix/Linux) are still hot, but desktops and laptops are way too price sensitive for IBM to make money there. When Joe Customer can get almost TWO Dells for one high-end Thinkpad, 9 of 10 customers buy the Dell. IBM just can't compete in a market that is purely cost driven where the cheapest wins and quality is a distant second consideration. Laptops and desktops are a commodity these days. If IBM can get a few Billion out of the laptop biz and keep those losses off the books then they ARE doing the right thing business wise. They might even get some sort of Branding revenue from whoever buys the line and wants to keep the IBM name (and quality I hope) just with a lower price point. IBM did this very same thing 10 or so years ago with the DiskDrive group. They first outsourced the manufacturing then sold it all. That idea has worked pretty good! All told I think this is a GOOD business move by IBM (Wall St agreees, Stock is up) which might hurt some short term but will help free up cash for other things (Services, new Software) long term. I do kind of feel sorry to see the laptops go, and some folks will probably lose jobs but businesses cannot remain stagnant or even more folks might lose thier jobs.