I.B.M. Official Talks of Goal

I.B.M. Official Talks of Goal

The New York Times

May 18, 1993

I.B.M.'s software operating system for personal computers needs roughly to double the number of customers using it in the next year or so to establish itself as a genuine rival to the offerings of the Microsoft Corporation, the head of I.B.M.'s personal computer software unit said yesterday.

The International Business Machines Corporation is announcing a new version of its OS/2 software today. This entry will compete head-to-head with Microsoft's Windows NT program, which will be brought out later this month.

The I.B.M. offering, called OS/2 version 2.1, and Windows NT are operating systems intended to make it easier for linked computers to perform several tasks at once.

Lee Reiswig, president of the I.B.M. unit, said OS/2 needs to be used in about three million personal computers within a year to attract more software developers to design applications for it. To date, two million copies of the OS/2 software, whose first version came out in 1987, have been shipped. But analysts estimate that perhaps 75 percent of the copies shipped, or 1.5 million, are actually in use.

Mr. Reiswig said the new version of OS/2 had the potential to outsell Windows NT. "It's critically important that we capitalize on the opportunity we have now, before Windows NT is shipped," he said. "If we don't, we will be history in a year."