On 12th august 1981, 30 years ago, the first Personal Computer was launched. This landmark feat was achieved by none other than the world renowned company computer giant IBM. This machine the original IBM 5150, brought about a PC revolution across the globe. It completely changed the way people work, the way they communicate, the way they play and the way the people live. It was at a press conference held in the Waldrof Astoria Hotel in the August of 1981, in New York City, when this miracle machine was launched. 30 years ago, the IBM 5150 helped the company to launch and establish an entire industry.
The reason why the IBM 5150 evolved so drastically, the great surprise that made many people bite off their nails, was the concept of including foreign components into the machine. Unlike other computers of its time, which were too slow to become common man’s gadget instead of just being gadgets for hobbyists, the IBM 5150 overpowered even Apple ll which was taking giant leaps of development and advancements just by using this concept. Because of the time pressure that the company was facing and the competition from other companies, IBM chose to fabricate its machine form non-IBM parts, which it bought from a petty company of that time. This concept was pretty unusual and a huge step for a company that was always considered to be narrow minded. The petty company later on became and is till now the world’s biggest and the largest company in the field of computers and we all know it by the name of Microsoft. But during those days, Microsoft was in infancy but it did save IBM and propelled it to success defeating Apple in the race. This concept led to the complete fabrication and development of IBM 5150 by its team in a very short duration of 12 months. This was a record time set by the teat that time making the IBM 5150 the fastest built machine of the company till that time.
IBM created such a unique model in the shape of IBM 5150 at that time that the idea of constructing a machine by using other companies to build parts for your technology proved to be of a very revolutionary thinking. Whole of the PC industry still sticks to the same idea for building their machine. Don Estridge was the man behind the generation of this revolutionary machine who led the team at IBM responsible for this invention.