It appears that your view of IBM, and other tech companies in general, are skewed to some degree:
> "These days, IBM is in decline. Friends/tech blogs/even sites like Cringely -- http://www.cringely.com/ -- note how IBM is quickly trying to shed any semblance to it's old self in names of meeting investor expectations."
I believe that is referred to as resource allocation/shifting. All corporations do this, not just IBM. It's not necessarily a bad thing nor good thing, it just is.
> "But, I wonder, will we every see the hey day of IBM Research, PARC, Bell Labs, etc. ever again?"
Simply browsing the technology/science sections on Google News will show what research companies like IBM, Google, etc. are involved in. Sure, Watson is the first thing people think of when they hear of IBM, but that's not their only endeavor. Just off the top of my head, last I read IBM was undergoing research in the areas of quantum computing and optimized processor fabrication techniques.
I'm not saying they still aren't doing research, but the level of research today is no where near what is was during their hey day. Furthermore, IBM, itself, is continuing to move away from the IBM of old and more towards being just a global services firm.
Given its size, any change at IBM will not be immediate, but it has been more in decline than rising.
Comments
It appears that your view of IBM, and other tech companies in general, are skewed to some degree:
> "These days, IBM is in decline. Friends/tech blogs/even sites like Cringely -- http://www.cringely.com/ -- note how IBM is quickly trying to shed any semblance to it's old self in names of meeting investor expectations."
I believe that is referred to as resource allocation/shifting. All corporations do this, not just IBM. It's not necessarily a bad thing nor good thing, it just is.
> "But, I wonder, will we every see the hey day of IBM Research, PARC, Bell Labs, etc. ever again?"
Simply browsing the technology/science sections on Google News will show what research companies like IBM, Google, etc. are involved in. Sure, Watson is the first thing people think of when they hear of IBM, but that's not their only endeavor. Just off the top of my head, last I read IBM was undergoing research in the areas of quantum computing and optimized processor fabrication techniques.
I'm not saying they still aren't doing research, but the level of research today is no where near what is was during their hey day. Furthermore, IBM, itself, is continuing to move away from the IBM of old and more towards being just a global services firm.
Given its size, any change at IBM will not be immediate, but it has been more in decline than rising.