Colors

Big Blue (International Business Machines)

"Big Blue" is a nickname for International Business Machines (IBM), which during the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's dominated the field of information technology.

There is no clear origin for the term:

Big Blue is a nickname for IBM. There are several theories explaining the origin of the name. One theory, substantiated by people who worked for IBM at the time, is that IBM field representatives coined the term in the 1960s, referring to the color of the mainframes IBM installed in the 1960s and early 1970s. "All blue" was a term used to describe a loyal IBM customer, and business writers later picked up the term. Another theory suggests that Big Blue simply refers to the Company's logo. A third theory suggests that Big Blue refers to a former company dress code that required many IBM employees to wear only white shirts and many wore blue suits. In any event, IBM keyboards, typewriters, and some other manufactured devices have played on the "Big Blue" concept, using the color for enter keys and carriage returns. (Source: IBM article, Wikipedia)

How It's Used

“Big Blue’s computer-services unit, which provides consulting, network installation and Web-site design, is expected to record about $23.4 billion in revenue for 1998, which translates to 21% growth.”

“Perhaps [Edwin Nixon's] most telling achievement was to operate the subsidiary of one of the world's most prescriptive companies—employees of 'Big Blue', as IBM was known, were renowned for never deviating from their white shirts with dark suits and a 'sincere' tie—in a manner that encouraged UK staff and enabled IBM to be appreciated as a key part of the British industrial scene.”

“One example of this seismic shift in global business is Lenovo, a Chinese computer-maker. It became a global brand in 2005, when it paid around $1.75 billion for the personal-computer business of one of America’s best-known companies, IBM—including the ThinkPad laptop range beloved of many businessmen. Lenovo had the right to use the IBM brand for five years, but dropped it two years ahead of schedule, such was its confidence in its own brand. It has only just squeezed into 499th place in the Fortune 500, with worldwide revenues of $16.8 billion last year. But 'this is just the start. We have big plans to grow,' says Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo’s chairman.

“One reason why his company could afford to buy a piece of Big Blue was its leading position in a domestic market buoyed by GDP growth rates that dwarf those in developed countries. These are lifting the incomes of millions of people to a level where they start to splash out on everything from new homes to cars to computers. 'It took 25 years for the PC to get to the first billion consumers; the next billion should take seven years,' says Bill Amelio, Lenovo’s chief executive.”

“Unlike the old Plan B, the new one doesn't involve a lot of plane tickets. Unless you are one of the recently laid off employees of IBM, who, under a program called Project Match, can remain on the Big Blue payroll if they move to a developing country where the company has openings, like India, China or Brazil.”

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