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Originally developed as a tool for scientific and engineering calculation for military problems, the computer quickly gained use during the 1950s for business data processing, such as accounting, payroll, billing and inventory.

The business data processing market was not limited to a particular country, but was global because all user industries shared a relatively common set of business applications. The global user markets for business data processing helped the computer companies support the large investments required for R&D and achieve economies of scale in production.

IBM’s marketing reach spanned the globe, a legacy of its tabulating equipment business, and it rapidly became the world’s leading computer company. The structure of the industry during the mainframe era was concentrated, with ten U.S. firms supplying most of the global market for computers.

The key players during the 1960s were IBM plus the so-called ‘‘BUNCH’’ (Burroughs, the Univac division of Sperry Rand, NCR, Control Data Corporation, and Honeywell). A new set of non-U.S. competitors was also trying to challenge IBM in their home markets, most notably ICL, Siemens, and Groupe Bull in Europe, and Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC in Japan.

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