1981 was a very popular year. Not only was a girl named Jennifer born, that's when MTV first debuted, PC Magazine was launched, and Ronald Reagan became President. But the most important thing to come out of 1981, IMHO, was IBM's introduction of the PC.
Wow. I'm as old as the PC. So far, all of my bits and bytes are still working!
Released on August 12, 1981, the PC consisted of a 16-bit microprocessor, 12 font styles, and 8 background colors, but no mouse or hard drive. It sold for $1,565 at ComputerLand and Sears.
My first computer as a kid was the Commodore 64, and I remember that I was so jealous that my older cousin owned the Commodore 128. And now look at what computers today can do! Not to mention how profitable the computer industry is. According to PCMag.com, the industry is worth $200 billion dollars, and a total of 580 million computers have been sold in the U.S. alone.
In the next five years, it is predicted that total PC sales will reach $1.3 billion. Simply amazing.
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August 16, 2006 5:44 PM
I still have my original Commodore 64. Once in a blue moon, we'll blow the dust off it, plug it in and start playing some old-fashioned games from the five and a quarter inch floppies. It still works. I can't say that about my 10-year old PC.