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Analysts such as Richard Nolan and David Yoffie of Harvard, and David Moschella of IDG, characterize the computer industry as passing through three stages of development. The first was the central computing era, which ran from the 1950s to the early 1980s, during which the mainframe computer and its little brother, the minicomputer, reigned supreme.

The second was the personal computer era, which ran from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, with PC sales surpassing mainframe sales worldwide by 1985. The third is the network era, beginning in the mid-1990s and extending well into the twenty-first century, marked by the majority of computers being connected to networks within organizations and interconnected worldwide through the Internet.

The essential character of competition over time in the computer industry can be characterized as:

(1) competition among firms in the central computing era,

(2) competition among countries in response to U.S. dominance in the central computing era, and

(3) competition among companies and countries within a global production network in the PC era.

The nature of competition in the network era is still evolving, but it appears to be moving toward a broader global production network that encompasses communications, entertainment, and consumer electronics companies.

An increasing number of countries are participating, as the industry seeks new markets and lower cost production sites. Each competitive era can be characterized by different technologies, user markets, companies, and industry structures.

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Tags: computer, development, history, industry