Core competence: lessons from the electronics industry

Abstract

From vertical integration into production networks During the fifties and sixties, computers were considered highly technical machines made and sold in an exclusive market. There were few customers, the big companies that were willing to pay for sophistication. The first computer on the market was not IBM but UNIVAC from Remington Rand which dominated production along with a handful of companies who have the specialised knowledge of making computers including the eventual market leader, IBM, and Burroughs, Adding Machine, NCR and Honeywell. By 1980 there were only about 10000 mainframes sold worldwide each year. IBM alone accounted for almost 40 per cent of the revenues from the computer industry and 60 per cent of its profits.