Thirty Years of Personal Computers
By Raul Hiromu Sumiya
This year, on August 12, we celebrated 30 years of the creation of the personal computer (PC), a machine that revolutionized our lives, creating a mass of possibilities, both for work and entertainment. I’ve been writing about the importance of computers in our lives for a while, and we can’t deny they have become indispensable.
These days we are experiencing a large migration from desktop computers to mobile computing, which includes tablets, laptops, netbooks, and smart phones. Recently, sales of desktop computers have been declining, replaced by mobile devices. Huge companies such as IBM, the company that actually unveiled the first PC in 1981, have already left the desktop market, perhaps because they imagined this transition.
If we examine tablets and smart phones and other mobile computers, they are basically nothing but PCs. The only difference is the size and the way we interact with them. Because of technological advances, the industry has been able to produce smaller electronic components with huge processing capabilities, which allow users to have the same facilities of a desktop computer in their pockets, anywhere.
When I bought my netbook four years ago, I was surprised with the genius of the industry to “wrap” a computer in such a small case and make it as capable as a normal desktop computer. However, now we have tablets and smart phones that are able to do basically the same things, with even more reduced sizes. Some specialists believe that netbooks will soon disappear, as tablets can provide almost everything a netbook user needs.
Think about the first PC released in 1981 — it didn’t provide a hard disk, and the monitor was sold separately. The memory was a total of only 16 kilobytes. And the price? US$1,565.00. If we compare the first PC with these new devices, it’s hard to believe how much the industry has developed in such a short time.
The advent of mobile computing is a huge leap in the area of personal computing. If you don’t have a tablet or smart phone yet, it’s just a matter of time; you will probably have one soon. If you already have one, no doubt it’s become your inseparable companion. So let’s celebrate the 30th anniversary of the personal computer!
Raul Hiromu Sumiya graduated in Computer Science and works as a Business Analyst. He may be contacted at: raul.sumiya@gmail.com.
