22 straight quarters of declining revenue followed by 3 quarters of growth followed by 3 quarters of decline. Seems to me that if anything, the 3 quarters of growth were the anomaly. Driven almost entirely by the new mainframe release.
This. Sadly, the only constant for IBM these days is the drop in revenue. The way the company is being run, that's not likely to change. Don't put too much stock into those three months. That's unlikely to repeat any time soon.