IBM used lettered model designations for its IBM Electric series of typewriters and various IBM keyboard families. You may be familiar with their Model F and Model M keyboard families, but obviously, there were letters before those. IBM Electric Typewriters Models A through D, and IBM keyboards Models A through M. There are also some models that sat adjacent to the letters like Typewriter 01 through 10 and Keyboards 1A and 1B.
This nomenclature was reset between the “typewriter age” and the “electronic keyboard age”, resulting in some overlaps (for example, a Model B typewriter family and a Model B keyboard family exist). I’ve also seen some people consider that keyboards extended the typewriter nomenclature beginning at “Model F” (as something like “beamspring keyboard = Model B” is not as widely known as F or M.) This page addresses this, describing what all the models are (and offering theories for the ones we don’t 100% understand like IBM Model A keyboards).
Enjoy!
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Interesting read! I was (unsurprisingly) familiar with some of the more well-known models there, but I never really considered all of the other models that would fill in the gaps sequentially.
It’s kind of quaint to see an old-school tech company being inconsistent and confusing in their product names just the way all of our tech companies are today too. The non-existent iPhone 2 or all of the Xbox model names come to mind immediately, but there are many, many others.
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Glad you liked it! In IBM’s case, I’m not quite sure why they even bothered creating additional meaning/altering the nomenclature like they did with G → M. AFAIK, IBM never used “Model F”, “Model M”, etc. in actual marketing. They’re even largely absent from whatever is printed on their boxes/retail packaging (if applicable). Usually, they are just happens to be printed on the keyboard’s underside. At most, they are sometimes referenced in documentation for technicians and professionals, but they wouldn’t need to be ‘wowed’ by marketing ‘BS’ if they already have the system and the manuals…
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