Friday, December 3, 2004
When IBM unveiled its personal computer 23 years ago, it launched the "PC" era. That era may be at an end with the company's decision to sell off its PC operations.
If completed, reported negotiations between IBM and China's largest PC manufacturer, Lenovo, would result in IBM exiting the PC business, relegating an American invention to the world's cheap labor market for manufacturing commodity electronics products.
Launched on Aug. 12, 1981, the "IBM PC" was the result of work by a team of 12 engineers led by William C. Lowe. The IBM team working in Boca Raton, Fla., designed and built the "Acorn" PC under secret plans dubbed "Project Chess." IBM renamed the Acorn personal computer the IBM PC, thereby popularizing the term and creating an industry from what had been a hobby.
The IBM PC was different in that it was the first computer based on an open architecture and made from off-the-shelf parts. It was marketed by outside distributors such Computerland. The IBM PC was even chosen as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1982.
The New York Times reported on Friday (Dec. 3) that the proposed sale if IBM's PC operations could be worth as much as $2 billion, and would likely include all of IBM's desktop, laptop and notebook computers.
By: DocMemory
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