The perception of who's 'alive' really depends on the perspective. If you're dealing with software solution consultants you can't get around IBM - but if you're a small software developer you might just as well never have heard of them.
just for the record, take a look at the revenue and employe numbers to see what has changed since the 1960s (big blue is still on top):
Services revenue is mostly consultants salaries too.
What I mean, that software and advertisement margins are generally higher, than for hardware and services.
Comments
The perception of who's 'alive' really depends on the perspective. If you're dealing with software solution consultants you can't get around IBM - but if you're a small software developer you might just as well never have heard of them.
just for the record, take a look at the revenue and employe numbers to see what has changed since the 1960s (big blue is still on top):
IBM $95.75 billion / 399'409 (2009)
Microsoft $62.48 billion / 89'000 (2010)
Apple $65.23 billion / 49'400 (2010)
Google $23.65 billion / 23'331 (2010)
Notice that IBM and Apple revenues are higher, because they selling mostly hardware. MSFT selling mostly software with exception of XBox.
This isn't true for IBM. In 2009 IBM's revenue from hardware was less than 17% from total revenue.
http://www.ibm.com/annualreport/2009/2009_ibm_annual.pdf
Services revenue is mostly consultants salaries too. What I mean, that software and advertisement margins are generally higher, than for hardware and services.