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In an attempt to re-gain market dominance and its old trend-setting status, IBM has made several shocking announcements recently that have left many industry analysts puzzled.
One of the oddest decisions was the sale of "IBM Clones" in Europe. To put that in perspective, one must remember where it all went wrong.
Big Blue's failure to license and patent the architecture of its first microcomputer, the PC, and its descendants, the XT and AT, led to a boom for hi-tech manufacturers (mostly in Southeast Asia), who specialize in cloning the popular units and selling them for a fraction of IBM's prices.
IBM's second mistake was to ignore the enormous success of the PC line and practically abandon it. Their solution was a whole new line, the PS/2 series, and new architecture (Micro Channel, or MCA), all properly patented.
But the company once again failed to read the...