ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some concluding thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses that the period since 1979 has witnessed a growing crisis in the British computer industry which has eclipsed that of the early 1960s. It shows that at least two major product cycles are evident in the computer industry. The first is associated with the market for mainframe computers in which IBM has been approaching a position of monopolistic domination for several decades. A second product cycle based around innovation in microelectronics has been evident in the computer industry since the mid-1970s. The book also shows that new firm formation peaked in computer hardware in the late 1970s and in software probably in 1982. It shows that New firms are the seedcorn of future industrial competitiveness and the computer new firms sector in Britain is currently in a very healthy state.
