Apple is the most valuable tech company in the world with a $362.1 billion market value. Now, Microsoft's lost second place to IBM. The reality is harsh: In only one year Microsoft fell from #1 to #3. In real numbers, IBM's market value rose to $214 billion at the end of September, while Microsoft's dropped to $213.2 billion. It's the first time since 1996 t IBM that passed Microsoft. In 2005, IBM sold its PC division to Lenovo and began to invest $25 billion in software and services. Its efforts paid off six years later, when Microsoft software sales dropped. IBM' CEO Sam Palmisano says his plan is to double operating earnings to at least $20 per share in 2015. He said that in May 2010; Since then share value has risen 35 percent.

Computing is now found in things that no one thinks of as ‘computers’. Today, there are nearly a billion transistors per human, and each one costs one ten-millionth of a cent. Yes, some of these transistors are going into servers, PCs, smart phones, MP3 players and tablets. But an increasing number of them are going into appliances and automobiles, power grids, roadways, railways and waterways.