IBM launched its first personal computer
On this day · 12 August 1981
Big Blue's open-architecture machine didn't invent the PC — it made the PC the standard the whole industry copied.
On 12 August 1981, IBM announced the IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, at a press event in New York. It was not the first personal computer, but it would become the most consequential.
Under the hood ran a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor paired with Microsoft’s MS-DOS. A team in Boca Raton, Florida, led by Philip Don Estridge, had built it in about a year by abandoning IBM’s tradition of proprietary, in-house parts. Instead they used off-the-shelf components and published the technical specifications openly.
That openness was the masterstroke — and the catch.
It let outside companies write software and build add-ons, fueling an explosive ecosystem. But it also let rivals reverse-engineer the design and sell cheaper “IBM compatibles.” The clones soon outsold IBM itself, yet the “PC” they all imitated set the template for the machines on most desks today. IBM took 100,000 orders by Christmas 1981 — stunning numbers for the young industry.
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