IBM’s efforts to put together an integrated portfolio of office applications for the Personal Computer five years ago was not a great success, but the week after next, on May 16, the company plans what it bills as the most important announcement since the AS/400, an integrated suite of its own and third party office automation applications for the PS/2. Key to the strategy will be more consistent integration of the applications than is possible when users buy their applications from a variety of vendors. Ironically, IBM’s most successful Personal Computer application was not a new one at all, but the word processing program it originally developed for the Displaywriter.
