Product strategy choices - Honeywell and RCA mainframe computer product strategies 1963-71

Anthony Gandy

Business History, 2014, vol. 56, issue 3, 414-433

Abstract: IBM's System/360 family of mainframe computers has been rightly considered as one of the most ambitious product developments of all time. However, what of the responses to it? This paper looks at two companies which directly targeted IBM's customer base. One, Honeywell, chose to target customers of IBM's older technology offering backwardly compatible, updated systems, exploiting IBM's move to a new technology. RCA, ostensibly one of the technically capable electronics companies of the era, tackled IBM head-on by producing a series of systems compatible with IBM's latest generation equipment - a strategy of forward compatibility. The cases on Honeywell and RCA focus not only on their product strategy but also on the timing of their investments. Specifically it highlights that, while the concentrically diversified nature of RCA provided it with the ability to develop computers, RCA's investment decisions were based on internal resource allocation logic, not a market-driven logic.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2013.800968

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