IBM

It has been suggested that Computing Tabulating Recording

Corporation be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
This article is about the technology company sometimes referred to as
"Big Blue". For other uses of these terms, see IBM (disambiguation) and
Big Blue (disambiguation).

International Business Machines

Corporation

Type Public

Traded as NYSE: IBM
Dow Jones Industrial
 Average Component

Computer systems
Computer hardware
and software
Industry Information
technology consulting
IT service
management

Endicott, New York

Founded
June 16, 1911

Armonk, New York,

Headquarters
United States

Area served Worldwide

Samuel J. Palmisano
Key people (Chairman, President
and CEO)

Products See products listing

US$ 99.870 billion

Revenue
(2010)[1]

Operating US$ 19.273 billion

income (2010)[1]

US$ 14.833 billion

Net income
(2010)[1]

US$ 113.452 billion

Total assets
(2010)[1]
 US$ 23.172 billion
Total equity
(2010)[1]

Employees 426,751 (2010)[1]

Subsidiaries Subsidiaries list[show]

Website IBM.com

International Business Machines (IBM) (NYSE: IBM) is an American

multinational technology and consulting firm headquartered in Armonk,
New York. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and
software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in
areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.[2]

The company was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating

Recording Corporation through a merger of four companies: the
Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording
Company, the Computing Scale Corporation, and the Bundy
Manufacturing Company.[3][4] CTR adopted the name International
Business Machines in 1924, using a name previously designated to
CTR's subsidiary in Canada and later South America. Its distinctive
culture and product branding has given it the nickname Big Blue.

In 2011, Fortune ranked IBM the 18th largest firm in the U.S.,[5] as well
as the 7th most profitable.[6] Globally, the company was ranked the 33rd
largest firm by Forbes for 2010.[7] Other rankings for 2010 include #1
company for leaders (Fortune), #2 best global brand (Interbrand), #3
green company (Newsweek), #15 most admired company (Fortune), and
#18 most innovative company (Fast Company).[8] IBM employs more
than 425,000 employees (sometimes referred to as "IBMers") in over
200 countries, with occupations including scientists, engineers,
consultants, and sales professionals.[9]

IBM holds more patents than any other U.S.-based technology company
and has nine research laboratories worldwide.[10] Its employees have
garnered five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National Medals
of Technology, and five National Medals of Science.[11] The company
has undergone several organizational changes since its inception,
acquiring companies like SPSS (2009) and PwC consulting (2002) and
spinning off companies like Lexmark (1991).

 2 Corporate affairs
o 2.1 Corporate recognition and brand
o 2.2 Working at IBM
 3 Research
 4 Selected current projects
o 4.1 Internal programs
 5 Environmental record
o 5.1 Solar power
o 5.2 Green Sigma
 6 Company logo and nickname
 7 See also
 8 References
 9 Further reading
 10 External links

History

Main article: History of IBM

[edit] 1880-1929
Thomas J. Watson led IBM from 1914-1956.

Starting in the 1880s, various technologies came into existence that

would form part of IBM's predecessor company. Julius E. Pitrap
patented the computing scale in 1885,[12] Alexander Dey invented the
dial recorder in 1888,[13] and a year later Herman Hollerith patented the
Electric Tabulating Machine,[14] and Willard Bundy invented a time
clock to record a worker's arrival and departure time on a paper tape.[15]
On June 16, 1911, these technologies and their respective companies
were merged by Charles Ranlett Flint to form the Computing-
Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R).[16] The New York City-based
company had 1,300 employees and offices and plants in Endicott and
Binghamton, New York; Dayton, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Washington,
D.C.; and Toronto, Ontario. It manufactured and sold machinery ranging
from commercial scales and industrial time recorders to meat and cheese
slicers, along with tabulators and punched cards.

Flint recruited Thomas J. Watson, Sr., from the National Cash Register
Company to help lead the company in 1914.[16] Watson implemented
"generous sales incentives, a focus on customer service, an insistence on
well-groomed, dark-suited salesmen and an evangelical fervor for
instilling company pride and loyalty in every worker".[17] His favorite
slogan, "THINK," became a mantra for C-T-R's employees, and within
11 months of joining C-T-R, Watson became its president.[17] The
company focused on providing large-scale, custom-built tabulating
solutions for businesses, leaving the market for small office products to
others. During Watson's first four years, revenues more than doubled to
$9 million and the company's operations expanded to Europe, South
America, Asia, and Australia.[17] On February 14, 1924, C-T-R was
renamed the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM),[8]
citing the need to align its name with the "growth and extension of [its]
activities".[18]

[edit] 1930-1979
NACA researchers using a IBM type 704 electronic data processing
machine in 1957

In 1937, the U.S. Government deployed IBM tabulating equipment to

maintain the employment records for 26 million people pursuant to the
Social Security Act.[19] In 1938, the IBM World Headquarters Building,
located at 590 Madison Avenue in New York, New York, was
dedicated.

In 1952, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., became president of the company,

ending almost 40 years of leadership by his father. In 1956, Arthur L.
Samuel of IBM's Poughkeepsie, New York, laboratory programed an
IBM 704 to play checkers using a method in which the machine can
"learn" from its own experience. It is believed to be the first "self-
learning" program, a demonstration of the concept of artificial
intelligence. In 1957, IBM developed the FORTRAN (FORmula
TRANslation) scientific programming language. In 1961, Thomas J.
Watson, Jr., was elected chairman of the board and Albert L. Williams
became president of the company. IBM develops the SABRE (Semi-
Automatic Business-Related Environment) reservation system for
American Airlines.

In 1963, IBM employees and computers helped NASA track the orbital
flight of the Mercury astronauts, and a year later, the company moved its
corporate headquarters from New York City to Armonk, New York. The
latter half of that decade saw IBM continue its support of space
exploration, with IBM participating in the 1965 Gemini flights, the 1966
Saturn flights, and the 1969 mission to land a man on the moon.

On April 7, 1964 IBM announced the first computer system family, the
IBM System/360. Sold between 1964 and 1978, it was the first family of
computers designed to cover the complete range of applications, from
small to large, both commercial and scientific. For the first time,
companies could upgrade their computing capabilities with a new model
without rewriting their applications.

In 1973, IBM engineer George J. Laurer developed the Universal

Product Code.[20]

One of IBM's Blue Gene supercomputers, which were awarded the

National Medal of Technology and Innovation by U.S. President Barack
Obama on September 18, 2009

[edit] 1980-present

Financial swaps were first introduced to the public in 1981 when IBM
and the World Bank entered into a swap agreement.[21] In 1991, IBM
sold Lexmark, and in 2002, it acquired PwC consulting. In 2003, IBM
initiated a project to rewrite its company values. Using its Jam
technology, the company hosted Internet-based online discussions on
key business issues with 50,000 employees over 3 days. The discussions
were analyzed by sophisticated text analysis software (eClassifier) to
mine online comments for themes. As a result of the 2003 Jam, the
company values were updated to reflect three modern business,
marketplace and employee views: "Dedication to every client's success",
"Innovation that matters - for our company and for the world", "Trust
and personal responsibility in all relationships".[22] In 2004, another Jam
was conducted during which 52,000 employees exchanged best practices
for 72 hours. They focused on finding actionable ideas to support
implementation of the values previously identified.[23]

In 2005 the company sold its personal computer business to Lenovo, and
in 2009, it acquired software company SPSS Inc. Later in 2009, IBM's
Blue Gene supercomputing program was awarded the National Medal of
Technology and Innovation by U.S. President Barack Obama.

In 2011, IBM gained worldwide attention for its artificial intelligence

program Watson, which was exhibited on Jeopardy! where it won
against game show champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

[edit] Corporate affairs

IBM's headquarter complex is located in Armonk, Town of North

Castle, New York, United States.[24][25][26] The 283,000-square-foot
(26,300 m2) IBM building has three levels of custom curtainwall. The
building is located on a 25 acre site.[27] IBM has been headquartered in
Armonk since 1964.[citation needed]

The company has nine research labs worldwide—Almaden, Austin,

Brazil, China, Haifa, India , Tokyo, Watson (New York), and Zurich—
with Watson (dedicated in 1961) serving as headquarters for the research
division and the site of its annual meeting. Other campus installations
include towers in Montreal, Paris, and Atlanta; software labs in Raleigh-
Durham, Rome and Toronto; buildings in Chicago, Johannesburg, and
Seattle; and facilities in Hakozaki and Yamato. The company also
operates the IBM Scientific Center, the Hursley House, the Canada Head
Office Building, IBM Rochester, and the Somers Office Complex. The
company's contributions to architecture and design, including Chicago's
330 North Wabash building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,
were recognized with the 1990 Honor Award from the National Building
Museum.[28]

IBM's Board of Directors, with 14 members, is responsible for the

overall management of the company. With Cathie Black's resignation
from the board in November 2010, the remaining 13 members (along
with their affiliation and year of joining the board) are as follows: Alain
J. P. Belda '08 (Alcoa), William R. Brody '07 (Salk Institute / Johns
Hopkins University), Kenneth Chenault '98 (American Express),
Michael L. Eskew '05 (UPS), Shirley Ann Jackson '05 (Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute), Andrew N. Liveris '10 (Dow Chemical), W.
James McNerney, Jr. '09 (Boeing), James W. Owens '06 (Caterpillar),
Samuel J. Palmisano '00 (IBM), Joan Spero '04 (Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation), Sidney Taurel '01 (Eli Lilly), and Lorenzo Zambrano '03
(Cemex).[29]

Various IBM facilities

IBM Rochester (Minnesota), nicknamed the "Big

Blue Zoo"

IBM Avenida de América Building in Madrid,

Spain

Somers (New York) Office Complex, designed by

 I.M. Pei

IBM Japan Makuhari Technical Center, designed

by Yoshio Taniguchi

IBM Haifa Research Lab, Haifa, Israel

IBM Kolkata Building, Kolkata, India

[edit] Corporate recognition and brand

In 2011, Fortune ranked IBM the 18th largest firm in the U.S.,[5] as well
as the 7th most profitable.[6] Globally, the company was ranked the 33rd
largest firm by Forbes for 2010.[7] Other rankings for 2010 include the
following:[8]

 #1 company for leaders (Fortune)

 #2 best global brand (Interbrand)
 #3 green company (Newsweek)[30]
 #15 most admired company (Fortune)
 #18 most innovative company (Fast Company)

For 2010, IBM's brand was valued at $64.7 billion.[31]

[edit] Working at IBM

In 2010, IBM employed 105,000 workers in the U.S., a drop of 30,000
since 2003, and 75,000 people in India, up from 9,000 seven years
previous.[32]

IBM's employee management practices can be traced back to its roots. In

1914, CEO Thomas J. Watson boosted company spirit by creating
employee sports teams, hosting family outings, and furnishing a
company band. In 1924, the Quarter Century Club, which recognizes
employees with 25 years of service, was organized and the first issue of
Business Machines, IBM's internal publication, was published. In 1925,
the first meeting of the Hundred Percent Club, composed of IBM
salesmen who meet their quotas, convened in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

IBM was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance
(1934), survivor benefits (1935) and paid vacations (1937). In 1932 IBM
created an Education Department to oversee training for employees,
which oversaw the completion of the IBM Schoolhouse at Endicott in
1933. In 1935, the employee magazine Think was created. Also that
year, IBM held its first training class for women systems service
professionals. In 1942, IBM launched a program to train and employ
disabled people in Topeka, Kansas. The next year classes begin in New
York City, and soon the company was asked to join the President's
Committee for Employment of the Handicapped. In 1946, the company
hired its first black salesman, 18 years before the Civil Rights Act of
1964. In 1947, IBM announces a Total and Permanent Disability Income
Plan for employees. A vested rights pension is added to the IBM
retirement plan.

IBM engineer George J. Laurer developed the Universal Product Code

in 1973.
In 1952, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., published the company's first written
equal opportunity policy letter, one year before the U.S. Supreme Court
decision in Brown vs. Board of Education and 11 years before the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. In 1961, IBM's nondiscrimination policy is
expanded to include sex, national origin, and age. The following year,
IBM hosted its first Invention Award Dinner honoring 34 outstanding
IBM inventors; and in 1963, the company named the first eight IBM
Fellows in a new Fellowship Program that recognizes senior IBM
scientists, engineers and other professionals for outstanding technical
achievements.

On September 21, 1953, Thomas Watson, Jr., the company's president at

the time, sent out a controversial letter to all IBM employees stating that
IBM needed to hire the best people, regardless of their race, ethnic
origin, or gender. He also publicized the policy so that in his
negotiations to build new manufacturing plants with the governors of
two states in the U.S. South, he could be clear that IBM would not build
"separate-but-equal" workplaces.[33] In 1984, IBM added sexual
orientation to its nondiscrimination policy. The company stated that this
would give IBM a competitive advantage because IBM would then be
able to hire talented people its competitors would turn down.[34]

IBM was the only technology company ranked in Working Mother

magazine's Top 10 for 2004, and one of two technology companies in
2005.[35][36] On October 10, 2005, IBM became the first major company
in the world to commit formally to not using genetic information in
employment decisions. The announcement was made shortly after IBM
began working with the National Geographic Society on its Genographic
Project.

IBM provides same-sex partners of its employees with health benefits

and provides an anti-discrimination clause. The Human Rights
Campaign has consistently rated IBM 100% on its index of gay-
friendliness since 2003 (in 2002, the year it began compiling its report
on major companies, IBM scored 86%).[37] In 2007 and again in 2010,
IBM UK was ranked first in Stonewall's annual Workplace Equality
Index for UK employers.[38]

The company has traditionally resisted labor union organizing,[39]

although unions represent some IBM workers outside the United States.
In 2009, the Unite union stated that several hundred employees joined
following the announcement in the UK of pension cuts that left many
employees facing a shortfall in projected pensions.[40]

A dark (or gray) suit, white shirt, and a "sincere" tie[41] was the public
uniform for IBM employees for most of the 20th century. During IBM's
management transformation in the 1990s, CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
relaxed these codes, normalizing the dress and behavior of IBM
employees to resemble their counterparts in other large technology
companies. Since then IBM's dress code is business casual although
employees often wear formal clothes during client meetings. [citation needed]

[edit] Research

An anechoic chamber inside IBM's Yamato research facility

In 1945, The Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory was founded at

Columbia University in New York, New York. The renovated fraternity
house on Manhattan's West Side was used as IBM's first laboratory
devoted to pure science. The lab was the forerunner of IBM's Research
Division, which today operates research facilities around the world.

In 1966, IBM researcher Robert H. Dennard invented Dynamic Random

Access Memory (DRAM) cells, one-transistor memory cells that store
each single bit of information as an electrical charge in an electronic
circuit. The technology permits major increases in memory density, and
is widely adopted throughout the industry where it remains in
widespread use today.

IBM has been a leading proponent of the Open Source Initiative, and
began supporting Linux in 1998.[42] The company invests billions of
dollars in services and software based on Linux through the IBM Linux
Technology Center, which includes over 300 Linux kernel developers.[43]
IBM has also released code under different open source licenses, such as
the platform-independent software framework Eclipse (worth
approximately US$40 million at the time of the donation),[44] the three-
sentence International Components for Unicode (ICU) license, and the
Java-based relational database management system (RDBMS) Apache
Derby. IBM's open source involvement has not been trouble-free,
however (see SCO v. IBM).

[edit] Selected current projects

developerWorks is a website run by IBM for software developers and IT

professionals. It contains how-to articles and tutorials, as well as
software downloads and code samples, discussion forums, podcasts,
blogs, wikis, and other resources for developers and technical
professionals. Subjects range from open, industry-standard technologies
like Java, Linux, SOA and web services, web development, Ajax, PHP,
and XML to IBM's products (WebSphere, Rational, Lotus, Tivoli and
Information Management). In 2007, developerWorks was inducted into
the Jolt Hall of Fame.[45]

alphaWorks is IBM's source for emerging software technologies. These

technologies include:

 Flexible Internet Evaluation Report Architecture – A highly

flexible architecture for the design, display, and reporting of
Internet surveys.
  IBM History Flow Visualization Application – A tool for
visualizing dynamic, evolving documents and the interactions of
multiple collaborating authors.
 IBM Linux on POWER Performance Simulator – A tool that
provides users of Linux on Power a set of performance models for
IBM's POWER processors.
 Database File Archive And Restoration Management – An
application for archiving and restoring hard disk drive files using
file references stored in a database.
 Policy Management for Autonomic Computing – A policy-based
autonomic management infrastructure that simplifies the
automation of IT and business processes.
 FairUCE – A spam filter that verifies sender identity instead of
filtering content.
 Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) SDK
– A Java SDK that supports the implementation, composition, and
deployment of applications working with unstructured data.
 Accessibility Browser – A web-browser specifically designed to
assist people with visual impairments, to be released as open
source software. Also known as the "A-Browser," the technology
will aim to eliminate the need for a mouse, relying instead
completely on voice-controls, buttons and predefined shortcut
keys.

Virtually all console gaming systems of the latest generation use

microprocessors developed by IBM. The Xbox 360 contains a PowerPC
tri-core processor, which was designed and produced by IBM in less
than 24 months.[46] Sony's PlayStation 3 features the Cell BE
microprocessor designed jointly by IBM, Toshiba, and Sony. Nintendo's
seventh-generation console, Wii, features an IBM chip codenamed
Broadway. The older Nintendo GameCube utilizes the Gekko processor,
also designed by IBM.

In May 2002, IBM and Butterfly.net, Inc. announced the Butterfly Grid,
a commercial grid for the online video gaming market.[47] In March
2006, IBM announced separate agreements with Hoplon Infotainment,
Online Game Services Incorporated (OGSI), and RenderRocket to
provide on-demand content management and blade server computing
resources.[48]

IBM announced it will launch its new software, called "Open Client
Offering" which is to run on Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple's
Mac OS X. The company states that its new product allows businesses to
offer employees a choice of using the same software on Windows and its
alternatives. This means that "Open Client Offering" is to cut costs of
managing whether to use Linux or Apple relative to Windows. There
will be no necessity for companies to pay Microsoft for its licenses for
operating systems since the operating systems will no longer rely on
software which is Windows-based. One alternative to Microsoft's office
document formats is the Open Document Format software, whose
development IBM supports. It is going to be used for several tasks like:
word processing, presentations, along with collaboration with Lotus
Notes, instant messaging and blog tools as well as an Internet Explorer
competitor – the Mozilla Firefox web browser. IBM plans to install
Open Client on 5% of its desktop PCs. The Linux offering has been
made available as the IBM Client for Smart Work product on the
Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux platforms.[49]

UC2 (Unified Communications and Collaboration) is an IBM and Cisco

Systems joint project based on Eclipse and OSGi. It will offer the
numerous Eclipse application developers a unified platform for an easier
work environment. The software based on UC2 platform will provide
major enterprises with easy-to-use communication solutions, such as the
Lotus based Sametime. In the future the Sametime users will benefit
from such additional functions as click-to-call and voice mailing.[50]

Redbooks are publicly available online books about best practices with
IBM products. They describe the products features, field experience and
dos and don'ts, while leaving aside marketing buzz. Available formats
are Redbooks, Redpapers and Redpieces.
[edit] Internal programs

IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano (far right) speaking with interns at

Extreme Blue in 2009

Extreme Blue is one of IBM's internship programs, which tasks students

with developing high-value technology.[51] In 2003, participants in the
program filed 98 patents.[52]

In May 2007, IBM unveiled Project Big Green, a re-direction of $1

billion per year across its businesses to increase energy efficiency.

On November 2008, IBM’s CEO, Sam Palmisano, during a speech at the

Council on Foreign Relations, outlined a new agenda for building a
Smarter Planet.[53] In addition, an official company blog exists. Smarter
Planet @ IBM

[edit] Environmental record

IBM has a long history in dealing with environmental problems. It

established a corporate policy on environmental protection in 1971, with
the support of a comprehensive global environmental management
system. According to IBM, its total hazardous waste decreased by 44%
over the past five years, and has decreased by 94.6% since 1987. IBM's
total hazardous waste calculation consists of waste from both non-
manufacturing and manufacturing operations. Waste from
manufacturing operations includes waste recycled in closed-loop
systems where process chemicals are recovered for subsequent reuse,
rather than just disposing of them and using new chemical materials.
Over the years, IBM has redesigned processes to eliminate almost all
closed loop recycling and now uses more environmental-friendly
materials in their place. IBM has also now built a modelling solution to
help protect the environment and reduce its own Carbon Footprint using
Lean and Six Sigma principles Green Sigma.[54]

IBM was recognized as one of the "Top 20 Best Workplaces for

Commuters" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in 2005. The award was to recognize Fortune 500 companies
which provided employees with excellent commuter benefits to help
reduce traffic and air pollution.[55]

The birthplace of IBM, Endicott, suffered pollution for decades,

however. IBM used liquid cleaning agents in circuit board assembly
operation for more than two decades, and six spills and leaks were
recorded, including one leak in 1979 of 4,100 gallons from an
underground tank. These left behind volatile organic compounds in the
town's soil and aquifer. Trace elements of volatile organic compounds
have been identified in Endicott’s drinking water, but the levels are
within regulatory limits. Also, from 1980, IBM has pumped out
78,000 gallons of chemicals, including trichloroethane, freon, benzene
and perchloroethene to the air and allegedly caused several cancer cases
among the townspeople. IBM Endicott has been identified by the
Department of Environmental Conservation as the major source of
pollution, though traces of contaminants from a local dry cleaner and
other polluters were also found. Despite the amount of pollutant, state
health officials could not verify whether air or water pollution in
Endicott has actually caused any health problems. According to city
officials, tests show that the water is safe to drink.[56]

[edit] Solar power

Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. (TOK) and IBM are collaborating to
establish new, low-cost methods for bringing the next generation of solar
energy products, called CIGS (Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide) solar
cell modules, to market. Use of thin film technology, such as CIGS, has
great promise in reducing the overall cost of solar cells and further
enabling their widespread adoption.[57][58]

IBM is exploring four main areas of photovoltaic research: using current

technologies to develop cheaper and more efficient silicon solar cells,
developing new solution processed thin film photovoltaic devices,
concentrator photovoltaics, and future generation photovoltaic
architectures based upon nanostructures such as semiconductor quantum
dots and nanowires.[59]

[edit] Green Sigma

Green Sigma is an Active Management Six Sigma system which is

currently being developed and enhanced through the Innovation Centre
in Dublin. Its goal is to manage and reduce IBM's carbon footprint and
achieve associated economic and environmental benefits. The system
focuses on carbon, water, atmospheric emissions, liquid waste, solid
waste, ground emissions, and the reporting on these elements. IBM
Green SigmaTM consultants continually work with the client team to
establish optimization of core processes and KPMGs.

 Phase I: Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

 Phase II: Establish Metering
 Phase III: Deploy Carbon Console
 Phase IV: Optimise Processes
 Phase V: Control Performance

IBM’s goal with the Green Sigma offering is to business partner with
clients, both for economic benefits for the business and a reduction of
the company's impact on the environment.[60]

[edit] Company logo and nickname

IBM logo history

Logo Years
 1924–1946

1947–1956

1956–1972
1972–
present

IBM's current "8-bar" logo was designed in 1972 by graphic designer

Paul Rand.[61] Logos designed in the 1970s tended to be sensitive to the
technical limitations of photocopiers, which were then being widely
deployed. A logo with large solid areas tended to be poorly copied by
copiers in the 1970s, so companies preferred logos that avoided large
solid areas. The 1972 IBM logos are an example of this tendency. With
the advent of digital copiers in the mid-1980s this technical restriction
had largely disappeared; at roughly the same time, the 13-bar logo was
abandoned for almost the opposite reason – it was difficult to render
accurately on the low-resolution digital printers (240 dots per inch) of
the time.

Big Blue is a nickname for IBM. There are several theories explaining
the origin of the name. One theory, substantiated by people who worked
for IBM at the time, is that IBM field representatives coined the term in
the 1960s, referring to the color of the mainframes IBM installed in the
1960s and early 1970s. "True Blue" was a term used to describe a loyal
IBM customer, and business writers later picked up the term.[62][63]
Another theory suggests that Big Blue simply refers to the Company's
logo. A third theory suggests that Big Blue refers to a former company
dress code that required many IBM employees to wear only white shirts
and many wore blue suits.[62][64] In any event, IBM keyboards,
typewriters, and some other manufactured devices have played on the
"Big Blue" concept, using the color for enter keys and carriage returns.
IBM has also used blue logos since 1947, making blue the defining color
of the company's corporate design, which might be another, more
plausible reason for the term.