|
COPYRIGHT 2005 Information Today, Inc.
We're at the quarter-century mark for PCs: Not a bad time to consider that name and its implications. P is for personal; C is for computer. Together, those two words formed a surprisingly political statement on the part of IBM when it introduced the first IBM personal computer in August 1981.
Not that 1981 marked the first microcomputer or the first desktop box based on a microcomputer and appropriate for personal use. The first 8t-bit microcomputer from Intel was introduced in 1972; the first desktop microcomputer kit arrived in January 1975; and the first packaged desktop computer for home use showed up in December 1976 or April 1977, depending on your definition of packaged." (December 1976 was the date of Processor Technology Sol; April 1977 saw the Commodore PET and Apple II.) But IBM, that massive corporation building room-filling computers, called its machine the IBM Personal Computer--and the PC name has stuck ever since.
I waxed philosophical 2 years ago about the longevity of desktop boxes as the dominant form of personal computing. My predictions in that column were probably wrong. Although "desktop" PCs still outnumber notebook and pocket PCs by a large margin in today's installed base, notebook PCs have passed desktops in sales revenue and doubtless in numbers shipped. Eventually, there may be more notebook PCs than desktop PCs in use. Add pocket PCs and that's even more likely, particularly if you define "pocket PC" broadly.
Notebook PCs are still personal computers, as are full-fledged pocket PCs. The concept of personal computing continues to be important in both its parts--desktop and portable--despite suggestions and projections that personal computing would become irrelevant.
C IS FOR COMPUTER
Remember "The network is the computer"? I always thought it an odd slogan for a company that sells computers, even if most (but certainly not all) Sun computers are used as network servers. As a slap at Microsoft and Intel, it's a great line--but it was never true as a...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
