one could afford. The 6502 based VIC-20, introduced in 1981, was the first color computer that cost under $300. It was also the first computer to sell one million units. VIC-20 production hit 9000 units per day - a rate that was absolutely phenomenal back then. While shortsighted critics kept asking what these machines were good for, Commodore was the first company to introduce millions of people to personal computing.The First Portable Computer - The Osborne 1Adam Osborne sold Osborne Books to McGraw-Hill and started Osborne Computer. Its first product, the 24 pound Osborne 1 "portable", cost $1795. The Osborne 1 was easily identified by its tiny built-in screen. Osborne also started the practice of bundling software with the computer - the Osborne 1 came with nearly $1500 worth of programs! Unfortunately Osborne went bankrupt when it preannounced its next computer while still trying to sell the Osborne 1.The IBM PCIn 1981, the landmark announcement of the IBM PC stunned the computing world. People had always thought of IBM as a high end mainframe player. Even the chairman of IBM is supposed to have looked at the original PC and said that it would never fly - that mainframes would dominate forever.Despite its weaknesses, IBM did get one critical thing right with the PC - it was based on an open architecture so that it could grow into the future. This strategy, combined with IBM's huge influence and the release of Lotus 1-2-3 a year later, made business people sit up and take notice. The PC and its descendants went on to dominate the computing industry.The original PC cost $3000, and came with 64 Kb of RAM, a floppy disk drive and monochrome graphics. It also came with DOS, an operating system based on CP/M. In an effort to save time so that it could catch the early personal computer market, IBM chose to license DOS from the then tiny Microsoft instead of writing its own operating system. For many years to come IBM would regret the deci...
