Entertainment For Lively Minds
Olivetti
Posted by Badlands on 26 July 2011 - 12:04pm.
I suddenly realised the other day that I had not heard of this company for years.
At one time they were a household name, almost synonymous with typewriters in the same way that (say) Hoover were with vacuum cleaners, for example.
Now I realise that no-one has a divine right to be in business and that many electronics/computing firms that were once pre-eminent/flavour-of- the-month have come and gone in the last 20 years, but I can't think of another name that was so well-known by the general public that has so completely disappeared from common usage.
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Quite a few
Atari
Commodore
Sinclair
Sega (as a console maker)
Agree that they were all verry well-known
in their field for while but none of them totally dominated a market for 20-30 years and they were competitors rather than being unique.
The influence of Chuck Peddle is long in early computing from the 6502 processor, via Commodore through to Sirius/Victor.
Similarly, Jack Tramiel - founding Commodore (PET, 64, Amiga) and making a giant of Atari.
Although
There have been endless attempts to resurrect Commodore. This was the latest -- an all-in-one PC in a C64 shell.
Is that a homebrew project
or something you can genuinely buy? In which case I'm definitely up for it.
here it is
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/04/commodore-64-back-and-better-than-e...
blu ray and alll
It ships with Ubuntu as well
as having that retro grey-beige complexion.
Let's face it, it's the geek's equivalent of the ugly puppy you just have to adopt.
I'm hearing those clunky Commodore keys in my head
as I type the words "Proustian Rush"..
I believe
it also contains a C64 emulator. Anyone fancy a game of C64 International Soccer?
Look back on lists of the FTSE or Dow Jones
from, say, 20 or 40 or 60 years ago and ask how many are still going today. And these are the biggest and brightest of names (at the time). Some have been bought up or merged but in many, many cases they're gone, dead, buried and forgotten. It happens more than you might originally think.
If it's longevity you're after
then the Burroughs Corporation would be the answer. They were the market leaders in adding machines and computers for probably 80 years.
Ah! Olivetti
My first DOS PC was an Olivetti that I bought from Dixons as an ex-display model. Twin 3.5in disks made it quite flashy compared with the Amstrad and even IBM competition at the time. That must have been around 1989/90... and they weren't exactly a big player in the market after that, at least in the UK anyway.
Wang and DEC
Wang led the way in word processing for a time. A Wang word processor was certainly the first I saw. Their advantage at first was, I think, that they were dedicated machines and so you didn't require general computer expertise to set up and run them. It was probably also the cause of their downfall, as PCs became easier to use, and people realised that they were more versatile.
And DEC, while maybe not know widely to the public, more or less invented the mini-computer market, and at one time was the second biggest computer company after IBM.
Both of these companies must have risen and fallen within the working lives of their founders.
Honeywell
Honeywell were also at one time 2nd only to IBM in the world's largest computer company stakes.
I guess they had their highest profile when batting & bowling averages would appear on the TV screen when the BBC had cricket in the late 70s / early 80s.
I think their downfall was that they saw no future in PCs and were going to stick to mainframes.
I believe they still produce central heating / air conditioning control systems.
Didn't they partner
with French company Bull (probably government-subsidised), who still have a presence in their marketplace.
Also, whither NCR?
Now you mention it
some dim memory is stirring of them being referred to as Honeywell Bull.
I used to work...
...for ICL, when it was the British computer industry.
NCR
They are still very much alive. Look at almost any cashpoint/ATM, pretty sure they make most of those.
The Bunch
I used to work for IBM. As I remember their main competitors were known as the BUNCH. I've had to look up who they were:
Burroughs
Univac
NCR
Control Data
Honeywell.
Added together their market share came nowhere near IBM's (which went on to suffer its own problems but it is now massively profitable again).
As with Dec/Digital
also with Data General (aka Digico), founded by Ed de Castro (ex DEC)
The disappeared quite a while ago in turf wars and failure to develop/ match DEC's VAX, but were known in the business world for their minicomputers.
For a fascinating account of their race to develop a 32-bit(!) machine read Tracy Kidder's excellent 'The Soul of a New Machine' (1981).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
Along with
The Cuckoo's egg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)
that's probably the best computer book I've read---would be interested in other suggestions.
I remember a TV documentary about Stoll
and this case - fascinating story. I seem to remember Clifford wandering around in animal pyjamas, complete with tail (Lion or similar)!
Wang
I have been lucky enough to do some work with Sydney Finkelstein, the Stephen Roth Professor of Management at The Tuck School of Business, part of Dartmouth College in the US.
He has written a book called Why Smart Executives Fail, part of which focuses on Wang Industries. In short, Prof Finkelstein's analysis of why Wang failed is as follows:
The company certainly rose and fell very quickly within An Wang's lifetime; sadly this was predominantly as a direct consequence of his own poor business decisions.
---
Disclaimer: I have no connection with Prof Finkelstein, other than to have worked with him on a number of occasions.
How the Mighty Fall
Jim Collins who wrote "Good to Great" about how good companies become great, has followed it up with "how the mighty fall". This has his theories (and data) on how big companies screw it up. Very interesting. I think it can be summarised as when the top management start to think that they are golden gods who can do no wrong, they are in big trouble. There are 5 stages - Hubris, indiscipline, Denial, Grasping (at straws or indeed anything), and finally death.
Bloody Wang
I vividly remember those Wang wordprocessing systems, which dominated office life in the 1980s and were, for their little hour, considered the bee's knees. Hornet's arsehole more like. I would get to the office and be greeted on the stairs, before I could even get my coat off, by hysterical secretaries and PR consultants (for such was the environment at the time) hanging over the banisters wailing, 'The wordprocessor is down!'. The CPU sat in a large dedicated walk-in cupboard and controlled a network of 'dumb terminals' (make up your own jokes) so if it threw a strop, which it did frequently and without warning, no one could use anything whatsoever. Wang would send out engineers who would always blame the user (cupboard too airless, overloading the system, faulty installation - they'd installed it, of course - need to upgrade, electricity surge, 'upsetting' it in some way or another) for each failure. It was like some pampered despot lolling under the stairs on a throne of skulls requiring regular tributes of blood and tears.
This large company ditched the bitch and went over to free-standing IBM PCs the minute they became generally available. And who can blame them? Not that those were trouble-free at first, but that's another story of tedium and frustration.
Emperor Wang
Obviously made his money to start the company from appearing in this...
Wang. Makes. It. Work
As their adverts used to go, IIRC.
Back in the 80s, they used to sponsor Oxford United when they were a top flight side.
There was allegedly a slogan that went
'Wang Cares' in the USA, but I think that this is apocryphal.
O/T
However, I do remember in the 80s (before the word 'suck' was in wide use over here in its US context) - 'Nothing Sucks Like An Electrolux' - I found it a bit misguided, but at the time, no-one else I met got it.
The slogan also invites the old 'nothing' gags
"Nothing acts faster than Anadin". Really? Alright, I'll take nothing then.
Wang Cares, indeed.
I remember the place I worked getting badly gazumped by Wang on a software supply contract circa 1992. We were actually getting the software boxed up for shipment when notice came in that Wang had seriously undercut us, supplying the whole shipment for far less than cost price. Either Wang had a contract to supply hardware to the company as well, or someone at Wang was up to no good.
Wang Cares was shouted at lot around the office for the next few months.
When VAX were a well-known vacuum cleaner brand
the phrase Nothing Sucks like a VAX was a badge of honour among Unix fans. You are reminding me that the collection of items from "the jargon file" http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon_File
published as The Hacker's Handbook was the 3rd great computer book I have, see e.g. http://books.google.com/books?id=g80P_4v4QbIC&pg=PA206&dq=frob#v=onepage...
A quick look at Amazon
suggests that Olivetti only really do consumables (toner cartidges etc) now - is that the same company?
I wonder if people will remember Nokia in 20 yrs time?
Pye televisions?
We had a Pye telly, a Bush record player, a Dansette tape player and went to school on a Leyland bus.
Since I emigrated to Australia in the 80s I find it odd to return to Leeds and find that "The Leeds" (of George Cole ad fame) wasn't as Permanent as its name implied.
Arthur Andersen
In the world of beancounters they were never the biggest, but always the (self-proclaimed) best...
...until they became better known for shredding than counting.
Word Perfect and Lotus 123
Unknown to Ubiquity to Oblivion in 5 years.
And not forgetting
Netscape.
From monopoly to oblivion (via a slow death) as soon as Bill Gates made MS Internet Explorer free and bundled it in with Windows.
You could fly
Pan Am - who they?
take tea in Lyons
drive a Morris, Austin, Singer, Sunbeam, Humber, Rover or Triumph
We've always got Pam Ann though ..
Bletchley Park
Does anyone else feel a sudden need to go to the computer museum at Bletchley Park?
Going to California ...
http://www.computerhistory.org/
saw the Boston incarnation---wonderful place.
Hadn't realised
that there is now a Computer Museum in Haverhill
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
Hopes to move to Cambridge
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/13587/A-Museum-for-Cambridge/
News of the World
Remember that paper? It was big for over 150 years and even gets mentioned in a HJH song. Where is it now, eh?
Blackberry
In a few years time, you might be saying, "Remember Blackberries….?" if they don't pull things round -
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230431980457638972193575142...
Olivetti Tablet
Oddly enough, I came across Olivetti today for the first time in donkey's years. They have entered the Android Tablet market, apparently:
http://www.stuff.tv/news/computers-and-consoles/news-nugget/olivettis-ol...
Man, that typewriter
is gorgeous
Me too
Saw that yesterday with a combination of affection and surprise. I started my software business in 1990 with an Olivetti PCS286 - my business partner and I shared it, such was its power.
Smith Corona
still appear to be in business if largely for the supply of consumables for their products. I used to own one of their typewriters before investing in a Brother word processor.
The Remington brand has changed hands several times and gone from originally being an arms and typewriter manufacturer to an electric shaver and computer and office equipment manufacturer before Victor Kiam famously bought the shaver side of the company. In 2003 his family and Vestar sold the company to Rayovac (later Spectrum Products) which still produce personal care products.
The computer side of the company Sperry Rand has changed hands several times and has effectively been absorbed by its new owners although Sperry continue to make navigation systems.
Wherefore art though Roneo .?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph
Ugh
That takes me back to school and being handed out duplicated sheets with ink so sticky it went everywhere.
Yahoo?
Nobody has mentioned Yahoo yet! .... it still exists?! Not for long surely.
And even before Yahoo...
...wasn't AltaVista the great search engine of the early internet years?
Where is it now?
timeline?
Yahoo was the the preeminent search engine a couple of years before alta Vista.
Sort of...
Yahoo was of course originally a human curated directory of web links. What's new on the web this week! grew into a jolly useful hierarchical index of resources, grouped by a tree of topics, a bit like the yellow pages
They eventually morphed into a sort of portal, sort of search, sort of advertising thing, but they mostly did it by buying in other search technology, first Inktomi, and then Overture ( who had by that point acquired alta vista) or presenting other engines search links, google for a long while, and nowadays, I believe, Bing.
Altavista certainly was the 'connoisseurs' search engine of choice in the mid nineties, with all the power users operators, and sci-fi technology like the babel fish translation engine. And then everyone migrated to Google, whose rise in speed and relevance overlapped with AltaVista's rush to irrelevance, as they caught portal-itis, and became wrapped up in the Freeserve nonsense, and went down in Digital's wake.
I was working for a web startup in those days, and we were very nearly acquired by AltaVista, even though our functionality and audience had nothing to do with their core function. I remember thinking then that this was a clear sign they were in a tailspin.
It seems unlikely that anything will break into significantly into Google's search space now, unless Apple suddenly magic one up from somewhere ( perhaps Bing is for sale :-) ?). I primarily use duck duck go myself, but I'm under no illusions about that ever reaching a particularly wide audience.
Gosh blimey..
I remember when I first plugged my PC into the phone socket..
Lycos, Webcrawler, Alta Vista, later Ask Jeeves. You used a different engine depending on what you were looking for.
Then came this thing called Google which seemed to find exactly what you wanted and at startling speed.
The World changed a little bit.
FriendsReunited
I still get emails from them and when I check there are no new entries for 5 years. How is it still going?
Buying that wasn't the wisest decision ITV ever made.
Sold to the Beano
Yes, really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Thompson
I'm not sure that I agree with the common view that this was a terrible business move by ITV. I'm more surprised by how spectacularly poorly the original idea has been squandered.
The genealogy / passive stalking / nostalgia / time-wasting garden site is a powerful idea, especially to the pre-microcomputer generation, who subsequently took to its subsequent embodiment in Facebook so enthusiastically.
Friends re-united were early to that party, and just seemed to be incapable of doing anything with the ball that landed in their lap.
Anyone still get their internet from Freeserve?
Thought not.
I didn't know
until now you could have got internet via Freeserve.
The power of advertising!
Freeserve were bought...
By Wanadoo who were subsequently bought by orange, until december 2010 I was still using a .freeserve email address as my main work one, dating back about 14 years from a dial up account! In fact my word emails still come through that account along with about 200 spam emails each day.
Epson
From my school getting its first printer right up until a few years ago, the printer in any office was likely to be an Epson.
Their subsequent downfall in this market is summed up by an IT bod I know. "They only make overpriced shite these days." Superceded, in my experience, by HP (whose domestic produce is also shite, in my opinion.)
Not sure about that
Sat here with a very useful little Epson by my side: bought less than 18 months ago...
EDIT: Sorry just re-read your post and noticed the "the printer in any office". I'm at home. Beg your pardon. As you were.
No problem, Red Umpire.
Lord Sugar's entire Amstrad portfolio
For all his posturing and wealth, Amstrad, bloody hell.
Woolworths
Who'd have thought this once unforgettable name on the high street would lose their business focus so much their slide into bankruptcy would be inevitable?
The name still exists as an online business but the pick'n'mix emporium has left empty shops still waiting to be filled in many parts of the country.
Almost every toy brand from my childhood has gone
Tri-Ang
Rovex
Chad Valley
Spot-On cars
Dinky
Spears
Waddingtons
...and, I suspect, dozens more I can't remember
Chad Valley are still limping along as a brand
I think they're owned by whatever is responsible for Argos. They push the Chad Valley label quite heavily.