How PCs Changed Home and Business

I remember it now even though it was well over a decade ago; “After dinner each of you can spend 20 minutes on the computer then it’s straight to bed”.  It was during the 90’s and computers had arrived on the scene with no intention of leaving, in fact just the opposite they had begun growing in popularity and were becoming increasingly common in homes. But it was different back then and the personal computer was a pricey household item, if your family did have one odd’s are it was the only one in the house. It was a big deal and back then and we weren't exactly sure what it would mean for our futures. Some agreed that it would take over social contract with others and tear families apart, yet others argued that it was tool and would continue to be treated as such allowing us communicate more efficiently with each other. Above in the comic you can see what were common fears regarding the household computer during the mid-90s. Flash forward to the modern computer connected world we live in today and we can see that neither were right nor were they wrong.

            

According to Statistic Brain (a website that parses Gartner, International Data Corporation) in 1975 there was a total of 40,000 personal computers sold in the United States and in 2011 in the United States alone 95.4 million computers were sold. What is interesting is that one the same website it states that 74% of all personal computers ever sold where purchased for the purpose of business.  Homes were not the only place that the PC found a comfortable and useful place in, business was a hot bed for the services they provided. This is not only to the benefit of the companies involved but also to us the consumers, because as companies were able to make more profit by cutting down the amount of work that needed to be manually processed and error margin they were able to return that into making better products and services. As computers became more and more interconnected businesses have been able to provide faster and more accurate services to us the customers. The PC has changed the entire face of business in just the last decade alone. Now you can be a stock market tycoon from the palm of your hand, or the dashboard of your car.

            

But the face of the personal computer is constantly changing and has been since its initial rise in the 90s. At first there were bulky desktop computers and eventually laptops became king because they could handle what a desktop PC could but were portable. In the business and home setting the need to become mobile with computers had arisen and we stepped up to the plate with the answer: the laptop. The trend hasn't stopped and is still moving along the same tracks with just as much steam as ever; today we have comparable power in hand held devices such as smart phones and tablets. Marcus Wohlsen from Wired Magazine believes that the most recent slumps in personal computer sales are because many kids are replacing laptops and desktops with smaller handheld devices like tablets. Will tablets become the future of the personal computer? I think we are no better equipped to answer the question than those before us were when they tried to answer the questions about the future of the personal computer.  As our personal and business needs are growing and expanding so is the personal computer evolving and adapting to fit the situations we need it for. I guess the question isn’t what will the PC become in the future, but rather what will we need out of our PCs in the future?

Statistics Brain, Computer Sales Statistics (2012) http://www.statisticbrain.com/computer-sales-statistics/

Butler, Clay, Comics About Family Values (2010) http://www.sidewalkbubblegum.com/category/comics-about-family-values/

Wohlsen, Marcus, PC Sales Slump as Kids Say No to Computers (10/11/2012) http://www.wired.com/business/2012/10/pc-sales-slump/