[TUHS] Demise of AT&T

[ron minnich]

I had a talk with a DEC salesman in Sep 1990. They had just loaned me a
DECStation for eval.

me: "What happens if computers become commodities like sneakers"
DEC salesman: "we go out of business"

They were right.

On Mon, May 19, 2025 at 9:18 AM Paul Winalski <paul.winalski at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Mon, May 19, 2025 at 9:43 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
> wrote:
>
>>     > It wasn't just AT&T, IBM & DEC that got run over by commodity DRAM &
>>     > CPU's, it was the entire Minicomputer Industry, effectively extinct
>> by
>>     > 1995.
>>
>> Same thing for the work-station industry (with Sun being merely the most
>> notable example).
>>
>
> Indeed.  Extinction of existing practice by new technology happens all the
> time and not just in the computer field.  Before sound recording and
> playback was invented,  fancy restaurants, hotels, etc. hired orchestras to
> play background music.  The phonograph put a huge number of orchestras out
> of business.
>
> There's a knee-jerk tendency in our industry for companies to respond to
> new technology by retreating to the high end of the market in an attempt to
> protect profit margins.  IBM did this when minicomputers came along; Apollo
> did it when confronted with cheap workstations (Sun); DEC did it when the
> PC appeared; Intel right now is attempting to do it to stave off
> competition from ARM.  In all cases the effort has been unsuccessful and
> usually has resulted in the death of the company (IBM has survived, but as
> a shadow of its former self).
>
> I think it was Scott McNealy who said (regarding protecting existing
> products and profit margins) that a tech company must be prepared to eat
> its own children.  If they don't, the competition will.
>
> -Paul W.
>
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