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Reading about the S/360 is insane...no one makes investments like that anymore. This would be the equivalent of Intel or someone spending $40 billion dollars on
by tarlinian 10y ago
Reading about the S/360 is insane...no one makes investments like that anymore. This would be the equivalent of Intel or someone spending $40 billion dollars on engineering the and the infrastructure needed to build a quantum computer today. (What's interesting is that they would survive even if the expense didn't pan out, but no large successful company would ever do this today.)
- adventured 10y agoSure they do. That's an immense spend by IBM, however lots of big companies spend in the 11 figures on projects. Exxon is spending $20 billion in the next five years to expand its oil refining and chemical operations along the gulf coast. Las Vegas Sands is planning to spend at least $10 billion just to build its Japanese operation. Verizon spent $25 billion or so over 12 years trying to build out FiOS. Wanda Group in China is spending $15 billion to build a Disney park competitor. Apple's total cost every time it builds a new iPhone is in the tens of billions including its ahead-of-time purchasing commitments.
- tarlinian 10y agoAll of these aren't in defining a new product. There was no guarantee of a customer base for the S/360. There was already an established market for each of these listed items. Maybe if Apple had spent that kind of money on making the first iPhone you could make a similar comparison.