Requiem for the IBM PC
by Mark Minasi, senior contributing editor, help@minasi.com

So IBM is getting out of the PC business. It's sad but not surprising. In retrospect, it probably should have happened long ago.

IBM's first successful entry into the microcomputer or home computer (that was before Big Blue hit upon the sexier "personal computer" name) market was a relatively unimpressive box released in August 1981. The company had largely ignored microcomputers for 8 years and released the PC only because a maverick IBMer named Don Estridge quietly put together a consumer microcomputer in Boca Raton, Florida.

The big thing about the IBM PC wasn't its technology: The company's first offering was an 8-bit/16-bit hybrid in a time when pure 16-bit systems had already come into their own. Nor was it the IBM PC's price: A $1500 entry price was a mite steep in 1981, particularly because that only bought you a motherboard, case, 64KB of RAM, and a keyboard. IBM really only made two positive contributions to the cause of personal computing, and only one of them was intentional.

First, IBM made desktop microcomputers legitimate, even if it didn't intend to. Desktop computers were toys for hobbyists. The majority of us using microcomputers in the late 1970s derived more enjoyment from just making the devices work than from what they could do. It was so dang neat to have a real computer in my house … even though I had to write the simple OS to make it work. Apple Computer nudged the image of desktop computers away from "completely useless" to "home computer that might be able to do your taxes." But it was IBM that moved the image of desktop computers to "respectable productivity tools." I’m not saying that this is a fair assessment--Apple did a nice job with the Apple II. But IBM had the mindshare and respectability and lent it, albeit inadvertently, to microcomputers.

Second, IBM deliberately created a very open system. For $45 you could buy an "IBM PC Technical Reference Manual" that contained a fully commented assembly language code listing of the IBM BIOS. The manual contained schematics and interfacing information for the PC's bus and everything you needed to know about how the hardware worked.

In light of today's technology atmosphere, it's hard to stress how important this information was. Many microcomputers existed in the late 70s, but boards and software written for one brand of computer almost never worked in a different brand of computer, so it was hard for new hardware to catch on. IBM, in contrast, had big enough coattails that when it came out with something new--1.2MB or 1.44MB floppy disks, a VGA video standard, a 16-bit internal bus called
(belatedly) ISA, a keyboard/mouse interface called the "PS/2 connector"-- it often clicked and created the kind of critical mass necessary for a putative standard to become a real one.

The openness of the IBM standard was probably the more important of IBM's two contributions and probably explains IBM's departure from the business. When cloning PCs became easy, people did it. When it became easy to build add-on hardware and software, people did it. And when those people who had been on the fence about whether to buy a desktop computer and which one to buy saw the compatibility and wealth of choices, they got off the fence and bought a PC compatible unit.
Soon Boca Raton's little PC operation got the attention of IBM Central, and the suits took over. A few years after the PC's inception, IBM tried to change the game, introducing a new incompatible and non-open line of systems called the PS/2 computer.

People rejected these systems, and other large vendors of PC compatible systems--Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, and others--were finally able to outstrip IBM in computer sales. Had IBM stayed with its original standards and created newer standards that were backward-compatible, Big Blue might have continued to reign supreme, but by trying to shove proprietary standards down users' throats, the company handed the torch of innovation to others. That's why when you think of IDE drives, 3-D video, USB, FireWire, and PCI slots, you don't think of IBM. That fact relegates IBM to just one of many manufacturers of PCs in a commodity market, making it difficult to produce the kind of margin that shareholders like.

So goodbye, IBM, and thanks for creating this part of the microcomputer business. It's been a good 23 years. Best of luck with your next venture.