s astonishing that at the beginning of 1975 nobody owned
a personal computer
all there was was a mock-up on a magazine cover
yet within five years there had emerged here in Silicon Valley
a billion dollar industry.
An unhealthy fascination with technology on the part of a few
adolescents
had awakened the nerd within us all.
PC companies were sprouting like mushrooms to meet
the enormous demand.
Apple had emerged as the top fungus and had taken fifty per cent
of the market.
To the boys in Cupertino, every day seemed like Christmas...
but Scrooge was around the corner.
There was a company that everyone associated with the word
'computer',
a company that expected, no demanded to dominate its market:
IBM
Big Blue was on the move
and Silicon Valley would soon be feeling the reverberations.
subtitles by fabiusX
subs@fabiushouseThe story so far...
In 1975, Ed Roberts invented the Altair
personal computer.
It was a pain to use until 19 year-old
pre-billionaire Bill Gates
wrote the first personal computer language.
Still, the public didn't care.
Then two young hackers,
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak,
built the Apple computer
to impress their friends.
We were all impressed and Apple was
a stunning success.
By 1980, the PC market was worth
a billion dollars.
Now, view on...
We are nerds.
Most of the people in the industry were young
because the guys who had any real experience
were too smart
to get involved in all these crazy little
machines.
It really wasn't that we were going to build
billion dollar businesses.
We were having a good time.
I thought this was the most fun you
could possibly have
with your clothes on.
When the personal computer was invented
more than twenty years ago
it was just that - an invention
it wasn't a business.
These were hobbyists who built these machines
and wrote this software to have fun
but that has really changed
and now this is a business,
this is a big business.
How the personal computer industry grew
from zero to 100 million units is
an amazing story.
And it wasn't just those early funky companies
of nerds and hackers,
like Apple, that made it happen.
Most of these transformation from hobby
to big business
can be linked to three letters: IBM.
IBM was, and is, an American
business phenomenon.
Over 60 years, Tom Watson and his son,
Tom Jr., built
what their workers called Big Blue into the top
computer company in the world.
But IBM made mainframe computers for
large companies,
not personal computers,
at least not yet.
For the PC to be taken seriously by big business,
the nerds of Silicon Valley had to meet
the suits of corporate America.
IBM never fired anyone, requiring only
the undying loyalty to the company and a strict
dress code.
IBM hired conservative hard-workers
straight from school.
Few IBM'ers were at the summer of love.
Their turn-ons were giant mainframes and
corporate responsibility.
They worked nine to five and on Saturdays
washed the car.
This is intergalactic HQ for IBM,
the largest computer company in the world...
but in many ways IBM is really more a country
than it is a company.
It has hundreds of thousands of citizens,
it has a bureaucracy,
it has an entire culture - everything in fact
but an army.
OK Sam we're ready to visit IBM country,
obviously we're dressed for the part.
Now when you were in sales training in 1959
for IBM did you sing company songs?
- Absolutely.
Well just to get us in the mood
let's sing one right here.
- You're kidding.
I have the IBM - the songs of the IBM
and we're going to try for number 74,
our IBM salesmen sung to the
tune of Jingle Bells.
(Bob & Sam singing)
'IBM, happy men, smiling all the way...
oh what fun it is to sell...
our pruducts night and day....
IBM Watson men, partners of TJ...
In his service to mankind,
that's why we are so gay.'
- Now gay didn't mean what it means today
then remember that OK?
Right ok let's go.
- I guess that