This Date in History

First Personal Computers
1981

By the early 1980s, the computer had shrunk from being a room-clogging behemoth to a relatively dainty machine that could fit on desks in homes and schools. So, IBM's introduction of its Personal Computer (PC) on August 12, 1981, didn't exactly signal a technical revolution. But that didn't stop Big Blue's PC from bursting onto the scene. Their new product sold 136,000 units in its first year and a half of release, propelling the companyýs stock on an upward climb that peaked later in the decade. IBM had seemingly served notice to the computer industry: the granddaddy of business computing was making a break from the boardroom and looking to conquer America's homes. Not as widely noticed was the fact that IBM's new machine was a pastiche of other company's components, including a processing chip courtesy of Intel and an operating system developed by a thirty-two person concern called Microsoft. Eventually, IBM would not only be relying on other company's technology, but would be chasing them for profits. Though recent years have been a touch kinder to the company, the early 1990s saw IBM posting annual losses that sometimes ballooned up to $8 million.