IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. The company began as a manufacturer of punch card tabulating machines and other business equipment. In the 1920s, IBM started producing electric typewriters and eventually became one of the world’s largest computer companies. Today, IBM is a leading provider of enterprise software and services, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and blockchain technologies.
IBM was founded in 1911 by Charles Ranlett Flint and Thomas J. Watson Sr. as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) through a merger of three companies: the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, and the Computing Scale Company. CTR was renamed “International Business Machines” in 1924. Watson played a pivotal role in developing IBM into a major technological force; under his leadership IBM grew from a small company to a global corporation with over $13 billion in annual revenues by 1932.
During World War II, IBM focused on punches and paper tape systems for military applications such as ballistics tables for artillery firing calculations; these were later adapted for use by businesses after the war ended. In 1948, IBM introduced the Selectric typewriter which used interchangeable typeballs instead of individual keys; this proved to be much more reliable than earlier models which had movable typebars that often jammed when typing at high speed. The Selectric was widely adopted by businesses throughout the 1950s and 1960s as it helped reduce typing errors and increase productivity.
In 1953, IBM released its first commercial electronic computer called the 701 which used vacuum tubes for circuitry; this was followed by transistorized computers such as the 7090 series which were much faster and more reliable than their predecessors. By 1964, IBM had become the largest supplier of mainframe computers with its System/360 family of products; these could be customized for different markets including scientific computation (the Model 3033), business data processing (the Model 4044), or real-time transaction processing (the Model 5060).
The 1970s saw continued growth for IBM with new product lines such as microcomputers (introduced in 1975 with the 5100 model), minicomputers (the AS/400 series launched in 1988), personal computers (PCs – introduced 1981), workstations (1985), mainframes (zSeries launched 2000), software offerings (DB2 database management system released 1983), services (Global Services created 1991), semiconductors (acquired Printronix 1984), storage systems (introduced ramac 305 hard disk drive 1956)and Consulting . In 1981 , 54 percentof Fortune 500 companies relied on Ibm mainframes . However , following AT & T ‘ s break – upin 1984 , competition from Japanese manufacturers increasedand Ibm ‘ s market share declined ;by 1987Ibm held just 36 percentof this market . To regain competitivenessIbm implementeda number o f changes : downsizing its workforceby nearly 60 percent between 1985and 1995 ; spinning off its printer divisionas Lexmarkin 1991 ; selling its PCmanufacturing businessto Lenovoin 2005