17.8.06
Historical PC Sales Top $3.1 Trillion
| The personal computer celebrated its 25th birthday this past weekend. Although its age is known, its weight wasn't. But on Monday, one analyst estimated that the total PC market to date is worth $3.1 trillion. IBM introduced the PC on August 12, 1981. It cost $1,565, had a 16-bit microprocessor, 12 font styles, 8 background colors and no mouse or hard drive. But it set the standard for the ecosystem that made the PC a part of our daily experience because it was compatible with non-IBM software. IBM released the machine with the go-ahead for other manufacturers to develop similar machines on the same software base. Egil Juliussen, an analyst with Computer Industry Almanac, co-authored a review of the machine in August of 1981 in which he predicted that the PC would "permanently and rapidly change the computer industry." "IBM did not fragment the personal computer industry by starting its own, new software base," Juliussen wrote in the original report. "Other manufacturers have fallen into this trap by trying to down-size their existing small system. Instead, IBM has shown that it is a market-driven company, determined what the best product would be, and built that product to be compatible with the primary existing standard." |
