August 12th marked 30 years since the IBM Personal Computer was introduced. This computer changed the course of history. Affordable home computers made typewriters obsolete. I certainly didn’t expect my life would change so dramatically after I bought my first PC. And of course with the Internet now in more than 75% of all homes in the US, having a computer means being connected to the world.
The first IBM PC was introduced with the Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS. DOS was a relatively easy to learn OS, and for those of you who remember having to type in commands at the DOS prompt, we have come a long way. Now with Windows 7, touch screens and voice activated commands, DOS command prompts are but a distant memory for most. Of course I still use the command prompt to get into the back end of my computer and to access hidden features, and having grown up with DOS, I am comfortable with many of the commands.
Of course the IBM PC was not the first affordable personal computer. Its predecessors included the Apple II, the Commodore PET, the Osborne I, and the Tandy TRS-80. Once the IBM PC was introduced, the industry moved toward “a PC on every desk and in every home.” Today there have been over 400 million PC’s sold worldwide.
The world is moving away from the PC as the primary machine at the core of our connected lives. According to an article by Todd Bishop, GeekWire, “Shipments of Internet-enabled electronics devices are on track to surpass PC shipments by 2013.” (See the chart below) This means the Smartphones, tablets, games consoles and TVs are making the PC just one more tool in the connectivity tool box, instead of the main device. Many of us get our email and browse the Internet on our Smartphones. We read books on our Kindles, which are also directly connected via Wi-Fi. Tablets and laptops are putting the PC in the recycle bin. I have to agree with Todd Bishop’s statement. I have a PC that remains unplugged and stacked up in the corner of my computer closet. I have replaced it with a laptop, and am considering a tablet once the Kindle tablet comes out.
Commemorating the introduction the IBM PC seems appropriate. But it boggles my mind to think about where we will be technologically speaking in another 30 years. What about you?
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