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PC REVOLUTION
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The PC RevolutionIn 1975, the first microcomputer was announced on the cover of
Popular Mechanics: the Altair 8800. Its immediate popularity
sparked the imagination of entrepreneurs everywhere, and there
were soon dozens of companies manufacturing these “personal
computers.” Though at first just a niche product for computer
hobbyists, improvements in usability and the availability of practical
software led to growing sales. The most prominent of these early
personal computer makers was a little company known as Apple
Computer, headed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, with the hugely
successful “Apple II.” Not wanting to be left out of the revolution,
in 1981 IBM teamed with Microsoft, then just a startup company,
for their operating system software and hurriedly released their
own version of the personal computer simply called the “PC.” Small
businesses finally had affordable computing that could provide
them with needed information systems. Popularity of the IBM PC
gave legitimacy to the microcomputer and it was named
Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 1982.
Because of the IBM PC’s open
architecture, it was easy for
other companies to copy, or
“clone” it. During the 1980s,
many new computer
companies sprang up, offering
less expensive versions of the
PC. This drove prices down and
spurred innovation. Microsoft
developed the Windows
operating system, with version
3.1 in 1992 becoming the first
commercially successful release. Typical uses for the PC during this
period included word processing, spreadsheets, and databases.
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