The demand for the Altair was unexpected, and overwhelming. Hundreds of small entrepreneurial companies immediately responded to this demand by producing computers for the new market. The first major electronics firm to manufacture and sell personal computers was a Tandy Corporation. It introduced its computer model in 1977 and quickly took over the computer market being the dominate product, this was mainly because of the combination of two features: a keyboard and a cathode-ray display terminal (CRT)
Soon after this new craze, two engineers/programmers called Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs started a new computer manufacturing company named Apple Computers. In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak created a homemade microprocessor computer board called Apple 1. These two men began to manufacture and sell there product to local electronics enthusiasts. In 1977, Jobs and Wozniak founded the Apple Computer Corporation, and in April of that year introduced the Apple II, it was the world’s first personal computer and it was based on their previous design the Apple 1. The Apple II introduced some new features such as the keyboard and colour graphics. Also Jobs and Wozniak introduced expanded memory, inexpensive disk-drive programs and data storage, and colour graphics into their own microcomputers. Apple Computers went on to become the fastest-growing company in U.S. business history. Its rapid and unexpected growth inspired a number of similar computer manufacturers to enter the field.
One year later, again two programmers Paul Allen and Bill Gates saw the first microcomputer on the cover of a magazine. They realized the time was right and the home PC business was about to explode and someone would need to provide software for the machines. Gates had arranged for a meeting with the Altair manufacturers. He had called them to let them know he had a program written for them. After the appointment was made, Gates and Allen stayed up for nights, writing the program he had promised. It worked perfectly at the meeting, and everyone was impressed and they sold the program. Within a year, Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed. Eventually they were able to license MS-DOS to IBM. The IBM PC took the public by storm, and its success was overwhelming Microsoft continued writing software, for businesses as well as the consumer market. In 1986, the company went public, and Gates became a 31-year old billionaire. The next year, the first version of Windows was introduced, and by 1993 a million copies per month were being sold.
When PC first appeared, they were only capable of handling only 4, 8 or 16 bits of information at one time. But today we have we have advanced from desktops to laptops to palmtops. With increasing demands for speed and space, people have turned to palmtops to meet their business and personal needs. Businesses, big and small, have begun to equip their employees with personal palmtops instead of laptops; students have discarded their personal organizers for palmtops. Being compact and lightweight enough to fit a pocket, it has slowly begun to take its place in the running of everyday lives. It is as if we suddenly have been able to make freeze-dried cappuccino which is so good that by adding water, it comes back to us as rich and aromatic as any freshly-brewed in an Italian café. While e-mail was relatively unheard of in 1990, millions of people now surf the Internet using palmtops!