IBM has made some of the worlds best supercomputers, and they have kept away from the gadget market. As wrong as this may be, it is not fair or makes sense, to compare them to iGadet makers.
It is like McDonalds criticizing French restaurants or Coca Cola critisizing Italian Wine (Coca Cola makes more money, but a Chianti sure is way much better).
IBM has no popular trend to help them and they are tosSerious for arranging sleepover lines in front of their stores. IBM has business customers that are not willing to pay the high prize for their quality. I for one think their license and support contracts are a robbery!
So maintaining something that nobody will pay for may be a noble social gesture, but it is not Business. Given The B in IBM we will have to accept that they adapt to what the customers will pay for.
For the Business market I am sure they will be able to come up with something that can land you on the moon for lunch and bring you back for supper --- while Apple works on voice recognition and iTunes.
IBM is in the market for groundbreaking new products from a tech point of view - not a marketing point of view (and screw design). Their products really need to stand out and solve stuff no one else can.
To achieve this IBM has often used Linux in the past - and I bet the next big success will implement Linux too. They are just slower than Apple and MS - which is fine by the businesses because they are slow too, No one wants to take a risk, and research takes time.
IBM might bounce back