A brief trip down the rabbit hole of IBM mainframes:
Oversimplifying, there are only 2 ecosystems left standing in computing altogether
-- PC/Unix
-- IBM OS/360 descendents (Z/OS)
The cost of creating a new ecosystem is staggering. If I was IBM, I would figure out how to get Z/OS onto every watch, phone, laptop. But it is probably too late.
They didn't explore new niches, so when the old one shrinks, they'll have no where to go.
In 2024 terms, the OS/360 operating system is a operating system for microcontrollers, those 10 cent chips with 8mb of memory. Heck with some clever engineering, I bet they could put one in a credit card and have it run off of ambient RF.
These guesses are too fun to validate if I'm right.
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