Personal computing

The move from mainframe to personal computers democratised the use of computers, making their power available to individuals rather than being confined to governments, academia and big corporations.

Personal computers gave businesses new flexibility and toolsets. Spreadsheets, databases, word processing and computer-aided design increased productivity and replaced the typewriter, the calculator and the drawing board.

The desktop computer was a hobbyist’s pursuit in the 1970s, notably at the Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley, where Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs showed off the Apple I and Apple II home computers.

IBM’s introduction of the Personal Computer in 1981, which cemented the term PC, was partly inspired by the success of the Apple II. It used off-the-shelf components, including an Intel processor, along with an operating system from Microsoft, to bring the product to market quickly.

This first PC was too expensive for consumers at $3,000, but its 64kb of memory and floppy disk drive appealed to businesses looking to modernise their processes.

It was Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center in Silicon Valley that came up with the mouse and graphical user interface, but it took Jobs and the Macintosh, introduced in 1984, to exploit these and make them the preferred companion of the keyboard.

Affordable, battery-powered laptops have been around since the mid-80s, but this century they have become challenged by tablets and smartphones in what is being described as a post-PC era.

And yet the PC still plays a dominant role in the workplace. With new interfaces emphasising gestures, voice and touch being introduced, business is likely to find new uses for the PC for some time to come.

Chris Nuttall