From mainframes to smartphones
Subtitle: a history of the international computer industry
By: Martin Campbell-Kelly and Daniel D. Garcia-Swartz
Contributors: Garcia-Swartz, Daniel D., 1962-
Series: Critical issues in business history; Critical issues in business history
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780674729063
Subjects: Computer industry; History
Description: This compact history traces the computer industry from its origins in 1950 mainframes, through the establishment of standards beginning in 1965 and the introduction of personal computing in the 1980s. It concludes with the Internet's explosive growth since 1995. Across these four periods, Martin Campbell-Kelly and Daniel Garcia-Swartz describe the steady trend toward miniaturization and explain its consequences for the bundles of interacting components that make up a computer system. With miniaturization, the price of computation fell and entry into the industry became less costly. Companies supplying different components learned to cooperate even as they competed with other businesses for market share. Simultaneously with miniaturization - and equally consequential - the core of the computer industry from hardware to software and services. Companies that failed to adapt to this trend were left behind. Governments did not turn a blind eye to the activities of entrepreneurs. The U.S. government was the major customer for computers in the early years. Several European governments subsidized private corporations, and Japan fostered R&D in private firms while protecting its domestic market from foreign competition. From Mainframes to Smartphones is international in scope and broad in its purview of this revolutionary industry. -- from dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I. Origins of the computer industry, 1950-1965 : The mainframe computer industry; title: Product differentiation, software, and services; title: The international computer industry; title: Part II. The impact of IBM's system/360, 1965-1980 : IBM's system/360 in the American market; title: IBM's system/370 in the American market; title: International reactions to system/360 and system/370; title: Part III. The rise of the personal computer, 1980-1995 : Microcomputers and personal computers in the American market; title: Beyond personal computers in the American market; title: International developments; title: Part IV. The internet era, 1995-2010 : Software and services; title: Computer hardware; title: Globalization.