IBM: Monopoly or Just Top Competitor?
October 10, 2009 by Mark Ellis
Filed under Business
Antitrust regulators have had IBM in their sights for a while amidst concerns that the computer giant may squelch too much of its competition and hold a monopoly in the mainframe market. However, many analysts have begun to point out that IBM’s so-called monopoly on the mainframe market might actually only exist in small subsets of the market.
According to analysts, the part of the mainframe market that antitrust regulators have accused IBM of monopolizing makes up only a small portion of the wider server market, a playing field in which there is now plenty of competition. Oracle’s impending acquisition of Sun Microsystems, for example, will create a formidable competitor for IBM, as well Cisco Systems’ entry into the market.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association has stated that IBM has a 100 percent hold on mainframe operating systems, but the figure may be deceiving because of IBM’s dominance in supplying mainframes that run on their own operating systems. Supporters of IBM ensure that the competition exists in the market, but that too narrow of a scope makes it appear as if there is a monopoly.
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