Beautiful machines from a beautiful country – “Olivetti’s history can be divided into three distinct parts. First, there were typewriters. As the crisis of this first era mounted, the company moved into microcomputers for its second era. With the IBM PC dominating the world, the company moved into its PC era. When this era came into crisis, the company ultimately ended in a merger, and that entity became a telco. Olivetti was an impressive company that achieved greatness. It was cut down by the same forces that affected so many others…”