For the first time since 1996, International Business Machines (IBM) Inc. surpassed its rival, Microsoft Corp., in terms of market value. It is rated as one of the signals that the technology industry had shifted away from the personal computer (personal computer).

Previously, more than a year ago Microsoft also coup by Apple Inc. as the largest technology company market value. Microsoft had heyday in late 1999. At that time the market value of Bill Gates founded the company that it reached 600 billion U.S. dollars. However, since then, the value of Microsoft’s market trended downward over the failure of the company’s various corporate actions, such as in the field of search engines or mobile.

At the close of Friday (30/09/2011), according to FactSet Research, IBM’s market value reached 208.84 billion U.S. dollars, while Microsoft amounting to 208.54 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, Apple Inc. firmly on top of the market value reaching 362 billion U.S. dollars.

IBM stock price rises that have consistently increased making company founded Thomas J Watson was beyond Microsoft. Based on Bloomberg data, the value of IBM stock has consistently continued to increase, even when it has gone up 22 percent from early 2011. Contrary to Microsoft that tends to fall, the current value of the stock which was founded by Bill Gates had slipped 8.8 percent compared with the beginning of the year.

The analysts said, IBM’s decision in 2005 to sell its computer business to Chinese company, Lenovo, to continue to concentrate on software and services is a factor that makes IBM continues to creep up. “IBM’s technology beyond. They had early detected that drove computing beyond than just boxes on our desks,” said Ted Schadler, a Forrester research analyst told Bloomberg.