????But while Watson has game-changing potential as an enterprise product, most companies are just starting to deploy so-called "big data" projects, and aren't ready for a heavy-duty analytics engine like Watson. To that end, IBM is rolling out "Ready for Watson," a program to get companies set up with basic analytics applications.
????Analytics is a big part of IBM's long-term strategy. Over the past five years, the company has invested $14 billion in analytics-related acquisitions, including SPSS, Cognos and Netezza. By 2015, IBM expects it will rake in $16 billion from the analytics products it sells, including Watson. In the meantime, IBM competitors like Oracle (ORCL) and SAP (SAP) aren't sitting still and have made their own large-scale acquisitions in this space. And while they may not have a supercomputer of Watson's fame, it's way too early to call it a game.
