A personal recollection: IBM's unbundling of software and services

• Published in: IEEE annals of the history of computing Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 64 - 71
• Main Author: Grad, B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Alamitos, CA IEEE 01.01.2002; IEEE Computer Society; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antitrust; Application software; Business; Climate; Computation; Computer aided manufacturing; Computer industry; Computer peripherals; Computer programs; Computers; Consent decrees; Costs; Customer services; Electromagnetism; electronics; electrotechnology; Electronics; Engineering; Hardware; History; History of science and technology; Market positioning; Marketing; Marketing and sales; Markets; Monopoly; Packaging; Physical sciences and techniques; Product lines; Sheds; Software; Software maintenance; Systems engineering; Systems engineering and theory; Task forces; USA; Sale; Trade; Recollection; Computer; Data processing; Computer industry; Service; Software

Many people believe that one pivotal event in the growth of the business software products market was IBM's decision, in 1969, to price its software and services separately from its hardware. The author's recollections shed light on the internal process and surrounding business climate tha...