On 30th anniversary of its PC, IBM fortells its death
Big Blue rolled out a new product back on Aug. 12, 1981 - its 5150 personal computer.
Of course, IBM got out of the PC games a few years back, but there is it no denying tech giant's place in the history of the revolution that put beige comupting boxes on almost desk in the world.
To mark this occassion, IBM had one of the original designers of IBM's 5150 write an essay/blog post. Mark Dean holds three of the nine patents on the first IBM box.
Today he is the the chief technology officer for IBM Middle East and Africa.
I find it interesting that Dean is still going to work every day for Big Blue after all of these years and being a key player in such a significant milestone.
Anyway, here's what he wrote about the death of the creation he helped to bring to life:
I, personally, have moved beyond the PC as well. My primary computer now is a tablet.
When I helped design the PC, I didn’t think I’d live long enough to witness its decline. But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they’re no longer at the leading edge of computing.
They’re going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs.
incandescent light bulbs are going "away" right now because they're being outlawed, not because there is better, less expensive, more reliable technology in place. It's the ol' "only of these things is different than the other" PBS moments.
Posted by: Allen | August 11, 2011 at 11:23 AM
Actually the alternative to incandescent bulbs are less expensive over the life of the bulb. I used to have a boss who could never figure out that he was not actually saving money by buying the cheapest bargain basement bulbs he could find. He, of course, had to keep replacing them all the time and we always had dim spots in the store where bulbs had burned out. He spent far more on bulbs than if he would have just bought quality bulbs in the first place. The new bulbs are also far more eficient (they use far less energy)which makes them last much longer than the old ones. You can see this by holding your hand near a plugged in old bulb and then a plugged in new one. The old ones generate far more heat than the new ones which is generally wasted energy.
Posted by: JGreg | August 11, 2011 at 12:00 PM
Just think of what would happened to them if they bought Microsoft, when they had the chance
Posted by: Jason's Storm | August 13, 2011 at 03:29 PM