How did Pervasive Computing get started at IBM?
It began in the research division about two and a half years ago. The idea was to peer into the future, about three years down the road and think about new trends. We recognized that there were a whole bunch of new devices coming out that won’t be PCs and that would have a big impact. A few hundred million PCs sounds like a lot. But that’s really a small number, compared to these new devices. I was charged with coming up with strategy for this area. Q: What were the challenges? A: Understanding convergence. We knew this would involve telecom — wireless as well as wired — information technology, consumer electronics, and entertainment all coming together. One thing we realized early on, as a core part of the strategy, was that this would not be pure IT and that it was not something we could do on our own. We would have to form “value webs” with players who are significant in other industries. Q: When did you start to get serious? A: In 1998, we started talking to telecom equipment man
