Ibm Pc

It appears that IBM, with the introduction of its new PS/Value Point line of personal computers, is finally back in the business of selling what its customers want most--peace of mind. These new computers are so traditional, so PC-compatible that they look as though they were designed and built by a high-quality clone maker, not IBM.

Yang Yuanqing heads the world's third-largest maker of personal computers. But few in the United States have ever heard of him -- or his company, for that matter. Lenovo Group aims to change that. Since the Chinese company bought IBM Corp.'s PC business last year for $1.25 billion, the company has moved quickly to establish itself as a global brand. To that end, Lenovo signed on as the official computer sponsor of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Your first kiss. Your first car. Your first job. And of course, your first computer. Remember the excitement of opening the box, removing all the components, poring over the manual, and then making your first call to the help line? (It was probably closed.) It might have been love at first sight, but for the next few weeks, you wondered what could have ever possessed you to get such an infuriating, time-consuming machine.

China's Lenovo Group Ltd. won clearance from a U.S. national security oversight committee to acquire IBM Corp.'s personal computer business, the companies said Wednesday, overcoming resistance from some U.S. lawmakers. An IBM executive said the high-level U.S. committee had given the deal its unanimous consent -- the final external approval needed -- putting the $1.25-billion PC sale on track to close in the second quarter as originally planned.

In "Blue Magic" two professional writers, using good investigative reporting (astonishingly good, considering the difficulty of digging an inside story out of the impenetrable wall around IBM) tell the story of the maverick Personal Computer project from a perspective from within IBM's Boca Raton, Fla. lab site. The reader is swept along with the urgency, painful politicking, and corporate upheaval that that project caused. The "Magic" involved here was the man at the helm, Don Estridge.

IBM to Consolidate PC Lines: Moving to reduce consumers' confusion about its products and regain lost market share, the company said it will reduce the number of product lines to four from nine. But Richard Thoman, the senior vice president who heads the PC Co. division, said International Business Machines Corp. will not see the benefits of its new strategy and its recent restructuring announced in July until mid-1995.

Gateway Communications Inc. posted net income of $209,331 for the first quarter, 68% higher than the $124,746 reported in the like period last year. Revenue rose 73%, to $6.3 million from $3.6 million. Gateway Communications, headquartered in Irvine, is a supplier of networking and communications products for the IBM PC market.

Thomas R. P. Measday has been named president of Avant-Garde Publishing Corp., a fast-growing Eugene, Ore.-based publisher of computer software for Apple, IBM PC and Commodore computers. He succeeds Mary Carol Smith, an Avant-Garde co-founder, who will become vice president of a new software facilities division reporting to Measday.

Swiss Firm Puts Macintosh Software on IBM PC: Quix Computerware, a small company with six employees, has modified the software that runs Apple's Macintosh so it can be used on an IBM personal computer. The modification comes ahead of the plans of either company to do so, according to the trade magazine MacWorld. The development places pressure on the companies to decide whether to modify their plans for Macintosh software to be on an IBM PC late next year or early 1997.

The personal computer business that International Business Machines Corp. is selling to China's Lenovo Group Ltd. hasn't made a profit for 3 1/2 years, IBM said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. IBM's Personal Computing Division had a loss of $139 million in the six months ended June 30 and losses of $258 million in 2003, $171 million in 2002 and $397 million in 2001, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company said. During that period, the PC division had sales of $34.1 billion.

Twenty years ago, I took a job at Information Unlimited Software thinking that I was about to rewrite the manual for its Apple II word processing program. Shortly after signing the requisite nondisclosure agreement, I was led to a secret laboratory. My boss undid the two locks on the front door, disarmed the security system and escorted me into a crowded and untidy room. On the table was a disassembled computer that didn't look at all familiar to me.

Your first kiss. Your first car. Your first job. And of course, your first computer. Remember the excitement of opening the box, removing all the components, poring over the manual, and then making your first call to the help line? (It was probably closed.) It might have been love at first sight, but for the next few weeks, you wondered what could have ever possessed you to get such an infuriating, time-consuming machine.

The list of inventions that have truly changed the world is short. But by almost any standard, the roster should include the little machine introduced 20 years ago this Sunday by the world's biggest computer company. The IBM personal computer, unveiled Aug. 12, 1981, was not the first PC on the market. Nor was it the cheapest, the most powerful or the most technically advanced.

Technology spin masters have debased few words more than "revolutionary." But last week, a symposium at Stanford University commemorated a moment in the history of technology that really did change everything. On Dec. 9, 1968, Doug Engelbart showed the computing world its future.

Compaq Computer Corp. and IBM Corp. led another strong year for personal computer sales in 1997, according to research firm Dataquest. About 82 million computers were shipped worldwide last year, a 15.8% increase over 1996, Dataquest said. Compaq retained its No. 1 rank as its market share grew to 12.4% from 10.1%. No. 2 IBM, No. 3 Dell Computer Corp. and No. 4 Hewlett-Packard Co. all saw worldwide gains as well, at the expense of Packard Bell NEC, whose share dropped from 6% to 4.8%.

In this State of the State address (Jan. 7), Gov. Pete Wilson's demand for a revision of the fraud-riddled workers' compensation program was right on. At one time, I had two secretaries. Now my secretary's name is IBM PC. A small business person in California can't afford to hire help in a state that has gone nuts with its high workers' compensation insurance premiums and even higher income tax. Unless taxes and fees are lowered, California's biggest export will become ex-employees moving to Nevada.

Peter Norton Computing Inc. has named Ron Posner as its new chief executive. The announcement was made by Peter Norton, founder and chairman of PNCI, who previously counted chief executive among his own titles. Posner has been active in microcomputer and software companies for more than a decade, holding key management positions previously with Ashton-Tate Corp., Borland International and Ansa Software. PNCI, Santa Monica, has developed software used in more than 1 million computers worldwide.

Swiss Firm Puts Macintosh Software on IBM PC: Quix Computerware, a small company with six employees, has modified the software that runs Apple's Macintosh so it can be used on an IBM personal computer. The modification comes ahead of the plans of either company to do so, according to the trade magazine MacWorld. The development places pressure on the companies to decide whether to modify their plans for Macintosh software to be on an IBM PC late next year or early 1997.

IBM to Consolidate PC Lines: Moving to reduce consumers' confusion about its products and regain lost market share, the company said it will reduce the number of product lines to four from nine. But Richard Thoman, the senior vice president who heads the PC Co. division, said International Business Machines Corp. will not see the benefits of its new strategy and its recent restructuring announced in July until mid-1995.