History Of The Microcomputer Revolution
Just 2 years after the introduction of the IBM PC, Business Week magazine
ran a cover story in October 1983 declaring IBM the Winner of the race
for the PC marketplace. 1983 was a bad year for many other computer companies
which had drastically reduced earnings or went bankrupt. Even Apple computer
had its problems, falling behind in sales to IBM and having what looked
like a dismal new product failure in its Lisa computer - which coupled
high technology with a high price that noone was buying. This disappointment
followed the Apple III, another product failure. The future certainly looked
rosy for IBM, and many business analysts and reporters thought that IBM
had really won the battle.
But IBM had never gone for a walk in the PARC, as had Apple's Steve Jobs,
and Microsoft's Bill Gates, and so IBM had not seen the future of computing.
PARC stands for the Palo Alto Research Center, created by the Xerox Corporation
in the early 1970's as a think tank for computer research. Unfortunately
for Xerox it was only - that - a think tank. Xerox never capitalized on
the major PC technologies thought up and made into working prototypes at
the PARC. They had created what some people say was the true first personal
computer - the Alto - back in 1972, and from this Think Tank came most
major PC world technologies, including the concept of a Graphical User
Interface with Icons, the handheld mouse, object oriented programming,
PC networking, desktop publishing and laser printing.
In 1979 Apple Computer allowed Xerox to buy a million dollars of Apple
stock in exchange for allowing a few key Apple people - including Steve
Jobs - to view inside the Xerox PARC and talk to the think tank people
for a limited time. Jobs and his Apple associates were literally amazed
at the technology they viewed, but they were more amazed that Xerox wasn't
doing anything with it. To the Xerox scientists, the Apple people were
the first people they had talked to who understood what they were doing.
Some of these scientist who worked at the PARC later went to work for Apple
and Microsoft, or started their own companies.
From this brief visit, Apple's perception of what a personal computer should
be was changed instantly, and they began planning to produce a new computer
which would be based on the ideas they had seen at the PARC. In 1980, Microsoft's
Bill Gates also had an opportunity to see what was inside the magical kingdom.
In these early days of the microcomputer revolution, Apple and Microsoft
actually worked very closely together on many projects.
So when IBM announced its personal computer in 1981, the Apple people were
dismayed both at how bad it was technically - and how well it sold. Even
Microsoft - who had come up with the operating system for it and the Basic
language, also knew at the time how much better a personal computer should
really be.
In 1983 Apple introduced its first computer based on PARC technology -
the Lisa - which sold for over ten thousand dollars, and which used a mouse.
It went nowhere - based more on its price than its capability. Things had
changed internally at Apple by this time. The company had become a corporation.
Steve Wozniak had been injured in a plane crash and had gone into semi-retirement.
Apple had hired Pepsi-Cola's John Sculley as its president to lead the
company to market domination, and Steve Jobs was fighting for his own survival
in the corporate power structure. Jobs took over a secret division that
Apple insiders referred to as the "pirates" and moved forward on a secret
mission.
During the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl in 1984, people saw an advertisement
which left people saying "What was that ?" and which marked the introduction
of the Apple Macintosh computer, a smaller and better version of PARC technology,
reasonably priced at $ 2495, and portable - a computer which Apple advertising
said was "For the rest of us.."
The Mac was an immediate success in many areas. Bill Gates even said it
was finally a computer his Mom could use. It drew a cult following of technology
junkies and IBM haters, despite the fact that it was somewhat underpowered
and radically different from all the other PC's at the time. The Mac soon
developed powerful niche market segments. Meanwhile, IBM had stumbled with
its PC Jr, and the Mac rained all over IBM's introduction of its 80286-based
Advanced Technology computer later that year.
But even more important, was that fact than now there were some clear choices
in the emerging PC marketplace as to how computers should actually work,
and next week we'll examine the saga of Microsoft
and IBM's stormy relationship, and how IBM managed to lose the PC marketplace
as quickly as it had almost won it.
For Raw Bytes, this is Frank Delaney
Copyright © 1995 MTA Micro Technology Associates
Frank Delaney
928 E. Thurston Spokane, WA 99203 (509) 624-7286/7230
Raw Bytes Computer News - KPBX FM 91.1 National Public Radio
In computer news this week (May 10, 1995):
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Copyright © 1997-2006 William Thomas Sanderson.
Portions Copyright © 1995 MTA Micro Technology Associates
Frank Delaney
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