10 Major Developments in the History of Personal Computer and Internet

By Thejakestrasser

  • The Altair 8800

    The Altair 8800
    This processor had 256 bytes of memory, no keyboard or monitor. The processor did have switches on the front used to enter data, as well as lights on the front to indicated results of a program. More Info

  • Apple I

    Apple I
    The Apple I was developed by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Ron Wayne. This unit came with a 4k RAM and was sold for around $700. More Info

  • Apple II

    Apple II
    One year after the Apple I, the Apple II was released with a color monitor, sound, and game paddles. It cost $1268 with a 4K RAM, but even more with the available 8K RAM. The greatest point was that the operating systems was stored in read-only memory. The easy to use operating system encouraged individuals to start writing their own programs.
    More Info

  • TRS-80

    TRS-80
    Radio Shack introduced this computer that had 4KB of RAM, a monochrome display, circuitry made to be hidden under the keyboard, and sold 10,000 units within the first month. Pricing was coming down, as it was $599.95. More info TRS-80

  • Commodore PET

    Commodore PET
    The worlds first personal computer. Featured in both Popular Science, and became very popular in business settings in Europe. Priced at a competitive $795, this computer seemed to really open up the computing world, as it sold 10,000 units after being released for only one month. Commodore Info

  • Osbourne

    Osbourne
    This creation was the first portable computer that weighed an impressive 24.5 pounds. This computer featured a 5-inch display, an impressive 64KB of RAM, preinstalled softwares, and two floppy disk drives. Fist portable computer

  • IBM PC(51150)

    IBM PC(51150)
    This personal computer was marketed to businesses and consumers and had an impressive 64KB to 256KB of RAM. Floppy disk drives were optional and hard disks were not supported on the early models unfortunately. Pricing was much higher, $1565-$3000. More info on IBM

  • Lotus 1-2-3

    Lotus 1-2-3
    This spreadsheet program entered the market after VisiCalc, and Microsoft Excel followed after. This program was the first to combine data management, graphics, and spreadsheet functions.
    Lotus Info

  • World Wide Web

    World Wide Web
    Although most people didn't fully grasp what the world wide web was, Tim Berners-Lee created an information space where documents and other web resources are identified by URLs, interlinked by hypertext links, and could be accessed by the internet.
    WWW info

  • Internet Explorer

    Internet Explorer
    Although very basic, the first version of internet explorer could only do HTML renderings, but it did lead to one of the most used tools. Internet Explorer Info