5 Tech Companies That Completely Reinvented Themselves
Let's start the countdown.
5 - IBM:
IBM - The global icon of computers:
In 1984, IBM was the undisputed king of the computing world, with its iconic PC. IBM was successful because it didn't try to do everything itself. Unlike Apple, which built every piece of hardware and wrote every line of software for its computers, IBM bought hardware components from smaller manufacturers and shipped its PCs preloaded with Microsoft Windows.
The Demise:
Ironically, the very strategy that made IBM the darling of Wall Street almost led to its demise. So-called "PC clones" soon flooded the market, each built with cheaper components and running the same versions of Windows.
In 1993, IBM posted the then-biggest loss in the history of corporate America — $8 billion [source:van Kralingen].
Raising to the top of Server business:
By 2010, IBM had acquired more than 200 companies in the IT services sector [source: van Kralingen]. It also invested heavily in its server business, becoming the No. 1 seller of enterprise server solutions in the world by 2013 [source: IDC]. The reinvention of IBM is studied in business schools as a model of corporate evolution in the Internet age.
4 - Nokia:
Nokia introduced the very first ringtone in 1994, based on a classical guitar piece called “Gran Vals.”
In 1871, Finnish mining engineer Fredrik Idestam built a second paper mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta River near the town of Nokia in southwest Finland. He named his paper company Nokia Ab. In 1898, the Finnish Rubber Works began manufacturing rubber tires and galoshes. The companies were joined by a third manufacturer, the Finnish Cable Works, in 1912, eventually becoming the Nokia Corporation [source: Nokia]. Nokia brand rubber boots, with their clean and colorful design, were the company's first breakout success.
Nokia's rise as a Tech Giant:
In 1963, Nokia's electronics division began making radio phones for the military and emergency services. By the late 1970s and early 80s, Nokia was making the world's first commercial radio phones and car phones, cumbersome devices weighing a few pounds each. In the 1990s, Nokia sold off its rubber and paper divisions and focused exclusively on cell phones operating on the newly minted digital GSM network.
For an impressive 14 consecutive years — 1998 to 2012 — Nokia sold more cell phones than any other company in the world [source: Williamson].
3- Nintendo:
A Playing Card Company:
Nintendo Koppai was founded all the way back in 1889 as a playing card company by Fusajiro Yamauchi [source: Jones]. In 1949, Fusajiro suffered a stroke and his 22-year-old grandson Hiroshi took over [source: Melia]. Over the next 63 years, Hiroshi Yamauchi would transform Nintendo into the world's most successful gaming company.
World's Most Successful Gaming Company:
Anxious about the limited market for playing cards, Yamauchi tested other products and services, including a taxi company, instant rice, hourly hotels (wink-wink) and toys [source: Jones]. Nintendo had its first hit toy in 1963 with the Ultra Hand, an extendable plastic grabber with suction-cup fingers. Taking an interest in video game popularity, Nintendo got the rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey in Japan, the world's first home video game console. In 1977, Nintendo released its first game console, the TV-Game 6, offering six versions of the same tennis game; it was eclipsed by Atari's iconic 2600 console [source: CBBC].
In 1980, legendary Nintendo video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto created the first arcade version of "Donkey Kong," featuring the hammer-wielding hero who would become Mario [source: CBBC]. When the NES console arrived in the U.S. in 1985, it featured Miyamoto's classic "Super Mario Bros." launching the best-selling video game franchise of the next three decades.
2 - Wipro :
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| Wipro Technologies chairman Azeem Premji |
Western India Vegetable products:
Wipro is short for Western India Vegetable Products. In 1945, Wipro began manufacturing and selling vegetable oil to Indian housewives. Over the next two decades, the company diversified into soaps, detergent, talcum powder, light bulbs and other consumer goods. It wasn't until 21-year-old Azim Premji took over the company from his father in 1966 that Wipro first expanded into IT
From Wipro to "The IBM of India":
Premji moved the company's headquarters to Bangalore — India's Silicon Valley —in the 1980s, and started building PCs and designing enterprise software. Today, more than half of Wipro's $6.9 billion revenue comes from the U.S., where it provides outsourced research and development and IT consulting services [source:Wipro]
Wipro is one of the world's largest and most successful IT services companies. Known as the "IBM of India," its 145,000 global employees serve more than 900 clients in 61 countries [source: Wipro]. With billions of dollars in annual revenue from IT outsourcing and software engineering.
1 - Apple :
Apples has done more than reinvent itself; you could say it reinvented the "reinvention" business [source:Moltz]. Legendary CEO Steve Jobs didn't invent any of the machines that made Apple a household name, but he and his design team made them infinitely better. Apple didn't invent the personal computer, but the intuitive icon-based interface on the original Apple Macintosh blew the doors off the existing DOS-based home PCs [source: Bajarin]. Apple is a success story.
Breathing life back into the Tablets:
Apple's greatest reinventions came when it turned its attention away from computers and toward hand-held devices. Again, the iPod and iPhone were not the first MP3 player or smartphone, but their Zen-like design and advanced touchscreen technology revolutionized the gadget industry. With the iPad, Apple combined all of its recent reinventions — touchscreens, lightweight design, plus incredibly powerful processors and batteries — to breathe life back into the tablet, a gadget sector that was pronounced dead back in the 1990s [source: Old Computers].
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