The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 28 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Compaq stockpiled inventory instead of doing layoffs when IBM attacked
“We're going to keep building these things. We're going to store them and wait for the orders to come. If the orders never come, yeah, we're in deep trouble, but you know what? We're in deep trouble anyway if the orders don't come.”
Canion: Compaq legally reverse-engineered IBM's ROM without infringing patents
“You know, we had reverse engineered the ROM following advice from top notch intellectual property lawyers. So we were very careful around that. Their product was not protected by patents in any other way.”
Michael Dell Realized the $3,000 IBM PC Contained Only $600 in Parts
“And so when you took apart this IBM PC, you That was selling for about 3000 dollars. As far as I could tell, it was about 600 dollars worth of parts.”
Category creators need knockoffs to prove their product's superiority
“The way that I soothe myself about knockoffs is that I remember this fact that, you know, Coke needed Pepsi. Xerox needed IBM. Beauty Blender needs knockoffs in order to prove why we are the category creator and the best.”
Dell introduced a PC twice as fast as IBM's for half price
“IBM at the time had a six megahertz, two 86 computer that they sold for 3995 dollars. So, you know, we introduced a 12 megahertz two 86 base computer and we sold it for 1995 dollars. So our computer was twice as fast and was half the price.”
Michael Dell realized the $3,000 IBM PC contained just $600 in parts
“When you took apart this IBM PC that was selling for about 3000 dollars, as far as I could tell, it was about 600 dollars worth of parts.”
Canion: IBM could have easily put early Compaq out of business
“They could have easily put us out of business if they had come out with a real comparable product.”
Canion: Compaq doubled sales to $1.2B with desktop 3x faster than IBM
“The thing that took us from six hundred million in 86 to 1.2 billion in sales in 87, we came out with our own desktop, which was, ah, essentially three times faster than IBM's desktop for about the same price and began to establish ourselves as not only the po…”
Dell: IBM's dominance in IT around 1981 was historically unprecedented
“You know, this company IBM had a leadership of the part of the economy referred to as information technology, unlike any other company at any other time in history. They were by far the dominant company.”
IBM's 1987 PS/2 computer launched without running any existing PC software
“Because this thing not only didn't run all the software, it didn't run any of the software.”
Canion admits IBM could have easily put Compaq out of business
“IBM maybe underestimated us. They didn't really study what had made our product successful. They could have easily put us out of business if they had come out with a real comparable product.”
IBM ignored peripheral cables due to production limits and printer fragmentation
“One was IBM had their hands full just making enough PCs, and it feels like it was probably years. There were just not enough of them getting built. And they had no idea what printer any given small business or consumer was going to choose, and most of those pr…”
Raz: Compaq sold 53,000 computers in 1983 compared to IBM's 750,000
“Compaq sold about 53,000 computers. And that same year, IBM, they sold 750,000 computers.”
Canion: IBM's 1984 portable launch halted Compaq's customer orders
“They, you know, in February of 1984, IBM introduces their own portable into the market. Now, our order stopped because before it actually was introduced, they were showing it to dealers and customers, and they just stopped ordering ours.”
Dell Launched a Computer Twice as Fast as IBM's for Half Price
“So, you know, we introduced a 12 megahertz two 86 base computer and we sold it for 1995 dollars. So our computer was twice as fast and was half the price.”
Tom's of Maine launched with a $5,000 loan backed by IBM stock
“I asked a friend to put up 5000 dollars. He and his wife were involved in the creation of this new alternative school in Kennebunk called The School Around Us. We became good friends, and I told him of my idea, and, ah, he had some IBM stock and took it to the…”
Compaq's orders froze when IBM previewed its own portable computer
“They, you know, in February of 1984, IBM introduces their own portable into the market. Now, our order stopped because before it actually was introduced, they were showing it to dealers and customers, and they just stopped ordering ours.”
IBM initially ignored Compaq because IBM lacked a portable computer entirely
“No, they had no idea, and nor did they care. I mean, even after we began to sort of get some positive results and getting into stores, remember we were portable. They didn't have a portable. So, initially it was very easy for them to ignore us because we were …”
Compaq reached $1.2 billion in 1987 with a faster, cheaper desktop
“The thing that took us from six hundred million in 86 to 1.2 billion in sales in 87, we came out with our own desktop, which was, ah, essentially three times faster than IBM's desktop for about the same price, and began to establish ourselves as not only the p…”
Case: IBM, Sears, and CBS Committed $1B to Prodigy
“There was one in particular called Prodigy that IBM and Sears and for a while, CBS, committed about a billion dollars to launch Prodigy.”
Newmark says not getting more involved with IBM PCs was a mistake
“My big mistake was not getting more and more involved with the PC back then, but I got a good education.”
Leah Solivan disengages from problems others can solve just as well
“I only like to work on problems that I feel like I can uniquely solve. And if I feel like there's someone else who can also do it and do it just as well, like, I become very disengaged and very bored and uninterested in working on it”
Solivan: Cashed out $27,000 IBM pension to fund RunMyErrand
“So I had 27,000 dollars in my IBM pension program that, you know, we could withdraw with a penalty because it was your retirement. But I was like, whatever, let's just withdraw this money. And so I gave myself like six months to make something happen.”
Awotona: Small software startups grew monthly what IBM grew annually
“So at the time, you know, IBM was probably growing double digits every single year. And some of the businesses that I was looking at where, you know, probably going, growing double digits every month.”
Compaq sold 53,000 computers in 1983 compared to IBM's 750,000
“Compaq sold about 53,000 computers. And that same year, IBM, they sold 750,000 computers.”