# [TECH] Personal Computer
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**The Personal Computer (PC)** brought computing from corporate data centres to individuals, enabling word processing, spreadsheets, desktop publishing, and eventually the Internet.
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## Overview
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The Altair 8800 (1975, MITS) was the first commercially successful kit PC. The Apple II (1977) and IBM PC (1981, with Microsoft DOS) established the PC as a mass-market product. The graphical user interface (Xerox PARC, 1970s; Apple Macintosh 1984; Windows 3.1, 1992) made computing accessible. The PC created markets for microprocessors (Intel x86), operating systems (Microsoft), and packaged software. By 1995, 150 million PCs were installed globally; by 2023, ~2 billion.
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## Key Actors
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- **Companies**: IBM (1981 PC), Apple (1976), Microsoft (1975), Intel (1968), Compaq (1982), Dell (1984)
- **Inventors**: Ed Roberts (1941–2010, Altair), Steve Jobs (1955–2011), Steve Wozniak (1950–)
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## Key Patents
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- Apple patent portfolio covering GUI elements; IBM PC architecture was open, enabling the clone industry.
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## Economic Value
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PC market: **$270 billion/year** hardware (2023, IDC). Software and services enabled: $500B+/year. The PC created the conditions for the internet, e-commerce, and digital economy worth $10T+/year.
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## Notes
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IDC *PC Market Tracker* Q4 2023. Microsoft alone has a market cap of $3T, mostly attributable to PC-era software.
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# Parents
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* [TECH] Integrated Circuit⏎