IBM's dominance over Univac is often attributed to the 615 computer.  The
Univac I was big and expensive, and only the largest companies could afford
one.  In fact, Eckert and Mauchly estimated that the total market for
commercial computers was about 50 machines!  The 615 was a smaller, more
affordable system that made digital computing available to a wider variety
of organizations.  As Nick points out, IBM had a much better understanding
of the marketplace than Univac did.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Demos [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 9:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: UNIVAC 50th Anniversary


> >BLUE BELL, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Fifty years ago -- on June 14, 1951 --
the
> >U.S. Census Bureau officially put into service what it calls the world's
> >first commercial computer, known as UNIVAC I.
>
>
> UNIVAC's failure was they never took advantage of the leadership they had
in
> the commercial mainframe market and let IBM pass them in public perception
> and reality as "the" computer company within a decade. While Big Blue
> innovated, UNIVAC was still using funny 90-column cards with round holes
as
> its main storage medium when I first worked on their machines in 1970.
>
I respectfully disagree.  The main reason that IBM became dominant is that
it
was ALREADY dominant in date processing with its electro-mechanical punched
card equipment.  IBM historically understood the commercial data processing
requirements better than anyone else and had a lot of marketing muscle.

Of course introducing the first popular integrated circuit computers (non
vacuum
tube also helped.

Regards,

Nick D,

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