Big Blue Overtakes MS-- shows a trend

You must have already read/heard the news that the Big Blue has overtaken Microsoft and become the 2^nd most valuable company across the globe. What an achievement for the company that was at the brink of closing down! And to become bigger and better than Microsoft which was in fact worth more than 3 times of IBM in 2000 is an applause worthy achievement.

Propelled by new growth areas and focus on services market, IBM kept on growing. In fact, as you all must be aware of, IBM Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano divested the company's PC business six years ago and decided to invest in software and services.

I do see a trend building here. The move is definitely from the boxes to services. There seems to be a paradigm shift from the personal computers to services and software. Along with IBM, many companies have divested its PC business to join the services bandwagon. The recent major company to move away from its PC business is HP, which was earlier a major player in the PC business.


The need for the hardware would always be there, but the reliance on it would become less. With companies further moving into virtualization and cloud, the demand for the hardware would drop.

But let me be clear on one point, I am not advising you to move away from hardware. I am a firm supporter of the hardware segment, and believe it to be an important segment of the IT industry. Just look at Apple—it’s the most valuable company.

My advice would be to ask you to find a synergy between your hardware, software and services segment. And that’s what the new age businesses would be looking for.

Do feel free to share your views on it!