Jean Pigozzi via Andy Hertzfeld on left, GenAI via Muse Image on right
Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery!
As a reminder, each week, every Friday, we’re sending out this overview of content in the Stratechery bundle; highlighted links are free for everyone. Additionally, you have complete control over what we send to you. If you don’t want to receive This Week in Stratechery emails (there is no podcast), please uncheck the box in your delivery settings.
On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.
The End of the Mainframe? IBM’s stock experienced the worst day in its history, which is saying something considering the company has been a public stock for 115 years. The product most synonymous with that history is the mainframe computer; mainframes defined the first wave of IT, and they are so useful and essential that IBM’s customer base is largely the same as it was half a century ago. Now, however, mainframe sales and the software that runs on them are faltering; management blamed AI spend, but as I argued in Wednesday’s Update, the real concern for IBM is that AI’s ability to port the essential backend programs that run on archaic technology will mean those missed sales never come back. — Ben Thompson
