By Newsweek Special Edition On 3/19/16 at 4:00 PM EDT. The computer went on sale in 1971; just 50 machines were built. The first modern computers were created in the 1950s and have a long theoretical and technical background. It went on sale in 1979 and within 4 years it had sold 700,000 copies at $250 a time. But even the Kenbak-1 … Both used the Intel 8080 CPU. They had already made one dismal attempt to crack the market with their IBM 5100. Some argue that he, not Turing or Zuse, is the true father of the modern computer. At one point, IBM considered buying the fledgling game company Atari to commandeer Atari's early line of personal computers. And so to the 1970s. The History, Development, and Importance of Personal ComputersOverviewThe personal computer was introduced in 1975, a development that made the computer accessible to individuals. The Story of Steve Jobs, Xerox and Who Really Invented the Personal Computer. The term “personal computer”, or “PC”, has become a staple of our everyday life, but have you ever wondered where exactly that term came from? I worked for a company named after the guy back in 1994. The personal computer moved into the world of business when Dan Bricklin created a spreadsheet program. IBM had been observing the growing personal computer market for some time. That was also the year Zilog created the Z-80 processor and MOS Technology produced the 6502.Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a BASIC compiler for the Altair and formed Micro-soft. Up to that time computers had been very large and expensive, operated mainly by big companies. The story of the personal computer, including the rise of both Apple and Microsoft, is a fascinating tale. You know, Babbages, the mall-based chain that eventually merged with Software Etc. (Image credit: IBM) 1981 : The first IBM personal computer, code-named "Acorn," is introduced. John Blankenbaker's Kenbak-1 computer has been called 'the world's first commercially available personal computer', and a rare 1971 example is now being auctioned. The ZX Series by a UK Company introduced the ZX Spectrum, which sold 8 million units. In 1975, Ed Roberts coined the term "personal computer" when he introduced the Altair 8800. Computers small and inexpensive enough to be purchased by individuals for use in their homes first became feasible in the 1970s, when large-scale integration made it possible to construct a sufficiently powerful microprocessor on a single semiconductor chip.A small firm named MITS made the first personal computer, the Altair. His program – called VisiCalc – was designed for the Apple II. They sold for $750, that's about $5,000 today. But a much more popular personal computer came into the scene later that year. The first IBM personal computer, introduced on Aug. 12, 1981, used the MS-DOS operating system. 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