IBM may no longer make personal computers but 25 years ago -- on August 12, 1981 -- it triggered a silent unplanned revolution when it announced the smallest lowest-priced computer system (IBM Personal Computer-5150), pricing it at $1,565.
An analyst was quoted as saying that 'IBM bringing out a personal computer would be like teaching an elephant to tap-dance.'
It had an enhanced version of the Microsoft BASIC programming language (we have XP today and Vista to follow); an 83-key adjustable keyboard (we may laugh at it today); and 16 KB (512 MB and 1 GB are household memory names today) memory.
This was the just the basic system for home use. It did not include a monitor, video card, parallel or serial port, operating system, or floppy drive. If you wanted a 64 KB (remember Bill Gates saying this was enough?) one, including a single diskette drive (where are they today?) and display (those monitors with a greenish tinge), it would cost a little over $3000.
An expanded system for business with colour graphics, two diskette drives, and a printer would cost about $4,500. Today, for these amounts (the value of money has changed over the years), you can buy a dozen computers with hyper-threading capabilities (HT technology) that are a hundred times faster, and store gigabytes of data and video (computers did not even
have a hard drive in those days.
It started with tape storage, then 8-inch floppies, which got reduced to 5.25 and 3.5 inches, and have almost vanished, giving way to USB, CD and DVD drives, with tonnes of software capabilities. And Intel duo core and AMD 64 Athlon are already screaming for desktop attention.
Interestingly, non-IBM PCs were available as early as the mid-1970s, first as do-it-yourself kits, and then as off-the-shelf products. They offered a few applications, but none that justified widespread use. The fact remains that even non-IBM PCs are mostly referred to as IBM-compatibles.
Before the IBM PC, there were mainframes or minis, large and expensive investments that were not meant for individuals. Since the resources were shared, computing jobs ran slowly during business hours when everyone was at work.
Besides, Apple II was introduced in 1977, and the Atari 800 came out in 1979. However, these systems had proprietary components and designs. Interestingly, by the end of 1982, qualified retail outfits were signing on to sell the new machine at the rate of one-a-day as sales actually hit a system-a-minute every business day.
The
Newsweek magazine called it 'IBM's roaring success,' and the
New York Times said: 'The speed and extent to which IBM has been successful has surprised many people, including IBM itself.'