Happy silver anniversary, IBM PC
updated 09:05 am EDT, Mon August 7, 2006
Silver Anniversary IBM PC
Twenty-five years ago, IBM pulled the wraps off of its original PC. Though some of us march to the beat of a different drummer, it's hard to deny the massive impact the IBM PC had on the computer market. It added greater legitimacy to using personal computers in business - at the time, IBM still had tremendous sway over businesses (the classic saying "nobody was ever fired for buying IBM" was taken very seriously). More importantly, the PC marked the first time a personal computer manufacturer licensed its technology to other companies: by 1983, Microsoft no longer had to tie MS-DOS to IBM computers, and Compaq was producing the first PC clones. It created a computer market where people thought less about which platform they bought and more about the quality of the company they bought from. For better or for worse, the computer market today would be very different without IBM's fateful decision to expand beyond mainframes.
