So the IBM PC was launched 30 years ago. Of course, there had been ‘personal computers’ around before that – most notably from Apple. But it was the PC that legitimized it and brought it from the hobbyist to the enterprise.
It was a very exciting year in my career as I had persuaded Hoskyns to take ‘micros’ seriously. The IBM PC finally got me the go-ahead to launch Hoskyns Business Centres and we quickly became the largest supplier of PCs to the corporate sector in the UK. The logistics involved were something we had never had to handle before. We had to rent warehouses. I remember even the problem of how you got rid of all the cardboard boxes was new to us!
So, 30 years on the question in all the newspapers today is “Is the PC dead?” Surprisingly, most commentators seem to think not. Actually, I think the answer is quite complex. Back 30 years ago you were lucky to have one PC and clearly it wasn’t linked to anything. Now most people have multiple devices all linked to the internet. Most of these, as we have said in many previous articles, are MIDs. As the number of devices we all have increases, clearly the cloud is the only viable way to store our data. Even within my own home we now have a ‘private cloud’ linking the myriad devices we have accumulated. Most of my time is now spent on my smartphone and tablet. I still do have a desktop PC. Its main advantage is its full sized keyboard which is still best when writing long reports or doing complex spreadsheets. But even that could be solved with a keyboard attached to my tablet. My PC now links to our private cloud and has no local storage. I very much doubt I will replace it.
Readers will also know that one of our current themes is BYOT. We believe that more and more employees (and obviously all the 5m ‘sometime’ self-employed) will buy their own technology rather than it being supplied by their employers. We think that is going to result in huge disruption in infrastructure services and to its suppliers. Just like the mass auto suppliers like Ford and GM were reliant on the ‘company car’ market, once employees BYOT, the fortunes of the current infrastructure suppliers will be similarly affected.
Will BYOT people buy PCs with their own money? We very much doubt it!