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Did Thomas Watson say in the 1950s that he foresaw a market potential for only five electronic computers? |
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We believe the statement sometimes attributed to Thomas Watson is a misunderstanding of remarks he made at IBM's annual stockholders meeting on April 28, 1953. In referring specifically and only to the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine -- which had been introduced the year before as the company's first production computer designed for scientific calculations -- Thomas Watson, Jr., told stockholders that "IBM had developed a paper plan for such a machine and took this paper plan across the country to some 20 concerns that we thought could use such a machine. I would like to tell you that the machine rents for between $12,000 and $18,000 a month, so it was not the type of thing that could be sold from place to place. But, as a result of our trip, on which we expected to get orders for five machines, we came home with orders for 18." |
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