IBM Market Analysis

This research presents a top-down analysis of IBM's participation in the computer and peripherals industry. The findings of this research are presented in relation to industrial organization, products and pricing, labor relations and productivity, and laws and regulations.

Industrial organization is considered within the contexts of market structure, market conduct, and market performance. Each of these organizational frameworks is discussed separately.

Market structure refers to the character of competition within a product market (Byrns & Stone, 1993, p. 473). Variations in the level of competition occur along a continuum ranging from monopoly (highly concentrated markets) at one terminus to pure competition (competitive markets with low concentration) at the polar extreme.

Market structure is defined within the contexts of (1) the numbers of firms and buyers, (2) product substitution, and (3) barriers to entry and exit (Byrns & Stone, 1993, p. 473). While there are some major firms in the computer and peripherals industry with substantial market shares, there also are characteristics of the industry that preclude the characterization of the industry as an oligopoly (Niemond, 1995, p. 1074). First, there are essentially three operating system platforms for which computers are produced, and which in turn create three sub-markets--the PC sub-ma

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of which IBM is one, do participate in the PC sub-market; however, none of these firms holds a dominant position. Market shares for the PC sub-market are presented in Chart 2, which may be found on the following page. Chart 1 Market Shares By Sub-Market: Computers and Peripherals Industry ________________________________________________________________ Sub-Market Market Share PC 89.0% Apple 6.0% Unix 5.0% [Calculated from data obtained from Niemond, 1995, pp. 1074, 1079, 1089, 1094; Seligman, 1995, p. 1110] ________________________________________________________________ Products and Pricing Market share considerations affect products and pricing within the computer software and services industry to a much greater extent than is true in the computer and peripherals industry (Niemond, 1995, p. 1074; Niemond, 1995, p. 2205). While IBM does compete within the computer software and services industry, the firm's major efforts are made as a participant in the computer and peripherals industry (Johnston & Picarille, 1995, p. 4). T
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Industry Sales, Byrns Stone, Apple Unix, Conduct Market, Power PC, Share Compaq, Investment Survey, Performance PC, Cortese Sager, Summary PC, peripherals industry, niemond 1995, computer peripherals, computer peripherals industry, pc sub-market, value line investment, 1995 pp, value line, line investment survey, line investment, investment survey, 1995 28, computer software services, computer software, 1995 28 july,
Approximate Word count = 1700
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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