5 The Computer Becomes a Business Machine
AN APOCRYPHAL TALE about Thomas J. Watson Sr., the onetime president of IBM, claims that, in the 1940s, he decided that there would not be a market for more than a handful of computers and that IBM had no place in that business. This anecdote is usually told to show that the seemingly invincible leader of IBM was just as capable of making a foolish decision as the rest of the human race. Conversely, the story portrays as heroes those few individuals, such as Eckert and Mauchly, who foresaw a big market for computers. There is perhaps some justice in this verdict of posterity regarding the conservative Watson versus the radical Eckert and Mauchly. Another way of interpreting ...
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