IBM vs. APPLE

Hi, everybody! My current page is devoted to IBM and Apple.

IBM is one of the oldest computer firms. It was founded in 1911. Early in 1950s IBM was prosecuted for having monopoly on the market of punched cards and tabulators. The same trials took place during nearly twenty years. In 1969 the Department of Justice prosecuted IBM for monopolizing the market of medium class computers for business. The trial on this prosecution was over only in 1982.

In 1979 IBM invented a new model of personal computers - PC. The processor, used in the first PCs, was Intel 8088, and the operation system - MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operation System). But IBM did not develop this model until the middle of the 80s, when Apple had its greatest success. It cost nearly ten million dollars for IBM to establish the new standard - PC. But when it was established producers in China, Taiwan and Korea started production of PC-clones. These producers didn't worry about the quality of their computers, but their prices were lower than IBM's.

IBM always provided a high-level service for its computers. But then the sellers decided not to do this; but to make the price lower so as to be able to compete with the clones. The result of this step was that IBM lost the client's trust

Besides, the operation system OS/2, developed by IBM, wasn't able to compete with Windows. It was never used by more than 10 per cent of PCs in the world.

In 1993, Lois V. Gerstner Jr. became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IBM. Since then the company has overcome the crisis. Because of Gerstner's acts, IBM was given responsibility for timing all the events in the Olympic Games in 1996, a lot of the world's largest companies bought computers produced by IBM. In 1997 the supercomputer 'Deeper Blue' won the chess match against the world champion Garry Kasparov. In 1996 the income of IBM was 75.9 billion dollars.

Apple is known as the firm which invented the computers called 'Macintosh'. As professionals say, Macintosh computers are much better than PCs for artists and designers. But their shortcoming is that they are about twice as expensive as PCs. So when PCs appeared, they became more popular than Apple's computers.

But all programs for the publishing business were first written for Macintoshes. So designers worked only with these computers in Europe and in the USA and later also in Russia.

But in 1985 the program Aldus (now Adobe) PageMaker for the PC appeared, and in 1986 the PC version of Quark Press, the program earlier used only in Macintoshes was issued. Now these programs work in PCs not worse than in Macintoshes. At present a lot of publishers think about whether they want to buy Macintoshes or PCs. Most of them choose PCs. Early in 1990s, a great slump In the course of Apple's actions began.

At the exhibition 'MacExpo'97', which took place in Boston in August 1997, a new board of directors was introduced. The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, was included in it. He declared that Apple decreased the production of its Macintoshes. It would concentrate its attention on two markets: design and education. Bill Gates spoke at the exhibition. He said that Microsoft would invest $150 million in Apple.

In the beginning of October, Steve Jobs became the deputy CEO of Apple. We'll see the results soon.

MICROSOFT: COMPETITION ONLY WITH ITSELF

Microsoft is the only large company in the world that has no competitors. Only Microsoft could grasp a giant market violating no laws. But it violated more than USA federal laws - it disturbed USA market traditions. According to these traditions, in every sector of the economy each major company has at least one major firm-competitor. There are Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Ford and General Motors, IBM and Apple. But Microsoft is singular.

Then, each major company gives an opportunity for the existence of many smaller firms. For example, Ford doesn’t make alarm systems, garages and radios for its cars. They are made by other smaller companies. But Microsoft itself sells each new version of Windows together with all necessary applications.

So Microsoft is very unpopular in the American business world. Since 1990, scandals about Microsoft have been happening annually. It was already accused of an 'anti-competition' agreement with IBM, attempting to monopolize the market of operating systems and their program security, and many other violations of anti-monopoly legislation. Sometimes Microsoft won in these conflicts, and sometimes it was defeated, but really it always remained a monopoly.

The reason of Microsoft's great success is Bill Gates. His almost supernatural talent to foretell the market's future is well known. He can guess which product he will be able to sell very profitably some years later, and so makes this product earlier than others.

For example, in 1990 Gates declared his new conception - 'information on your fingertips', and foretold the development of the world computer industry in 1990-2000. He said that in the nearest future everyone would have any information within one's grasp - 'on fingertips' - with a computer's help. Now it has already become a reality - there is almost any information one could want in networks.

In 1995 Gates foretold that ten years later there would be pocket computers, car computers, PC-kiosks, and personal computers that understand the owner's voice; that information would be accessible everywhere to everybody. A pocket computer will replace everything in a person's pocket, except a handkerchief: omission, credit card, pager, notebook with modem. If you need a large screen, you can use a PC-kiosk. A pocket computer will be able to connect quickly to a PC-kiosk, or any other computer.

At present there already are hand-held PCs. Now they are not as good as Gates promised - but an operation system in them is Windows, they are Internet-ready, and can be connected with common computers. This proves that everything Gates says is possible. As yet his forecasts aren't completely realized, but he spoke about the year 2005, and then, probably, they will become reality.