[IP] Market for 5 computers?

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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From: peter.capek@gmail.com [peter.capek@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Peter Capek [capek@ieee.org]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 12:45 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Market for 5 computers?

For IP, if you agree...  This is not particularly timely, but was referenced in an IP comment yesterday.
What follows is from an IBM Q&A, and I think it pretty well explains the silly assertion that Thomas
Watson said the world only needed 5 computers.   (Full disclosure: I used to work for IBM.)

                     Peter Capek


Q. Did Thomas Watson say in the 1950s that he foresaw a market potential for only five
electronic computers?

A. We believe the statement that you attribute to Thomas Watson is a misunderstanding of
remarks made at IBM's annual stockholders meeting on April 28, 1953. In referring specifically
and only to the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine -- which had been introduced the
year before as the company's first production computer designed for scientific calculations --
Thomas Watson, Jr., told stockholders that "IBM had developed a paper plan for such a machine
and took this paper plan across the country to some 20 concerns that we thought could use such a
machine. I would like to tell you that the machine rents for between $12,000 and $18,000 a
month, so it was not the type of thing that could be sold from place to place. But, as a result of
our trip, on which we expected to get orders for five machines, we came home with orders for
18."

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