[jcfrei]

The perception of who's 'alive' really depends on the perspective. If you're dealing with software solution consultants you can't get around IBM - but if you're a small software developer you might just as well never have heard of them.

just for the record, take a look at the revenue and employe numbers to see what has changed since the 1960s (big blue is still on top):

IBM $95.75 billion / 399'409 (2009)

Microsoft $62.48 billion / 89'000 (2010)

Apple $65.23 billion / 49'400 (2010)

Google $23.65 billion / 23'331 (2010)

[nivertech]

Notice that IBM and Apple revenues are higher, because they selling mostly hardware. MSFT selling mostly software with exception of XBox.

[dgudkov]

This isn't true for IBM. In 2009 IBM's revenue from hardware was less than 17% from total revenue.

http://www.ibm.com/annualreport/2009/2009_ibm_annual.pdf

[nivertech]

Services revenue is mostly consultants salaries too. What I mean, that software and advertisement margins are generally higher, than for hardware and services.