Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries, with a new preface (Harvard Studies in Business History) PDF
Preview Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries, with a new preface (Harvard Studies in Business History)
harvard studies in business history, 47 PublishedwiththesupportoftheHarvardBusinessSchool EditedbyThomasK.McCraw IsidorStrausProfessorofBusinessHistory GraduateSchoolofBusinessAdministration GeorgeF.BakerFoundation HarvardUniversity Inventing the Electronic Century t h e e p i c s t o r y o f t h e c o n s u m e r e l e c t r o n i c s a n d c o m p u t e r i n du s t r i e s With a New Preface Alfred D. Chandler Jr. withtheassistanceof TakashiHikinoandAndrewvonNordenflycht HarvardUniversityPress Cambridge,Massachusetts London,England 2005 Copyright©2001byAlfredD.Chandler,Jr. Prefacecopyright©2005byAlfredD.Chandler,Jr. Allrightsreserved. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Chandler,AlfredDupont. Inventingtheelectroniccentury:theepicstoryoftheconsumerelectronicsand computerindustries:withanewpreface/AlfredD.ChandlerJr.,withtheassistanceof TakashiHikinoandAndrewvonNordenflycht. p.cm.—(Harvardstudiesinbusinesshistory;47) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-674-01805-2(pbk.:alk.paper) 1.Electronicindustries. 2.Computerindustry. 3.Competition,International. I.Hikino,Takashi. II.VonNordenflycht,Andrew. III.Title. IV.Series. HD9696.A2C43 2005 338.4′7621381—dc22 2004060901 To Anne and Fay Acknowledgments Oftheseveralpersonswhomadepossiblethewritingofthisbook,themost importantwerethetwotowhomIhavededicatedit—AnneO’Connelland mywife,FayChandler.Anne,forthepastdecade,hasbeentranscribingmy garbled, dictated, handwritten copy into smooth readable typescript, at the sametimekeepingthenumerousvariationsofthetextandtheendnotesin their proper place and order. As critical was Fay’s constant encouragement and support, which becomes increasingly valuable as I begin life’s ninth decade. Nor would the book have been written without the assistance of Takashi Hikino and Andrew von Nordenflycht. Before Takashi had to return to his homeland, Japan, his assistance was essential in getting what has become twobooksunderwayaswellasinthewritingoftheinitialdraftsofthechap- ters. Andrew played as critical a role in the completion of the book, for his computerskillsandhisknowledgeofthecomputerindustryhelpedtomake up for my limited technical knowledge. His committed work on the final draftmadepossiblethecompletionofBookOneonschedule. NorcouldthebookhavebeenwrittenwithoutthesupportoftheHarvard Business School. I am grateful to both Dean John H. McArthur and Dean | vii | viii | Acknowledgments KimB.Clarkforthecontinuingsupportofmywork.Iamparticularlygrate- ful to John McArthur for his establishment of the Senior Faculty Center, which provides facilities and personnel essential for emeritus professors to continue to write and publish. At the Center, Jan Simmons, Paula Alexan- der, and, most of all, Eileen Hankins provided essential secretarial and li- braryservices.AttheSchool’sWordProcessingCenter,AimeeHamel,inas- sisting Anne O’Connell, became an expert in developing and updating the book’stablesandappendices.Atthefrontdeskinmyapartmentbuildingat 1010 Memorial Drive, Teresa Hardy faxed messages and correspondence andassistedinotherways. I’mindebtedtoAliceAmsden,JamesCortada,MichaelCusumano,Mar- garet Graham, Thomas McCraw, and Pasquale Scopelliti for reading and making essential comments on original drafts of chapters. Nathaniel Mar- shall,aformerRCAmanager,providedaninsidepictureofthatenterprise. John Akers, of IBM, pointed me in the right direction as I started on the project. As in my earlier studies, I benefited greatly from Max Hall’s essen- tial copyediting, which he did for all but the last chapter, when the dead- lines prevented rereading. I’m grateful, too, to Alexander Gourevitch, who helpedmemakeafinalreadingofthecompletedtextagainunderthepres- sure of the final deadline. Finally, I am grateful to Robert Wallace of the Free Press for his constant enthusiasm and support of the work and his ar- rangements that made it possible for the final completed typescript to be publishedonschedule. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to the editors of Datamation for providing an unsurpassed source of information on the evolution of the computer industry in its annual review of the activities of the top 100 reve- nue producers in computers and then in the broader information technol- ogy industry. Particularly valuable were the reviews of the 1980s and early 1990s. Manyhavecontributedtothisbookbutthefinaltextismine,andforitI takefullresponsibility. —AlfredD.ChandlerJr. Cambridge,Massachusetts May2001 Contents PrefacetothePaperbackEdition xi 1 Introduction:ConceptsandApproach 1 2 ConsumerElectronics:TheUnitedStates— TheCreationandDestructionofaNationalIndustry 13 3 ConsumerElectronics:Japan’sPathstoGlobalConquest 50 4 MainframesandMinicomputers:TheComputerIndustry CreatedintheUnitedStates 82 5 TheMicroprocessorRevolution:TheComputerIndustryRecastinthe UnitedStates 132 6 TheNationalCompetitors:Europe’sComputerIndustriesDie,Japan’s IndustryChallenges 177 7 TheConsumerElectronicsandComputerIndustriesastheElectronic CenturyBegins 216 8 TheSignificanceoftheEpicStory 238 Appendices 259 Notes 275 Index 307 | ix |
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