On May 26, Apple’s market capitalization stood at $223 billion. That took it, for the first time, higher than Microsoft, which had a market cap of $219.3 billion. Apple, not Microsoft, not Google, was at the top of the technology business mountain. And that marked the end of an era: The PC is no longer the center of the computing universe.
The PC: August 12, 1981 — May 26, 2010. RIP.
The powerhouse of the computing revolution was born when IBM released the first IBM PC in August 1981. It died when Apple took the market lead from Microsoft.
Yes, of course, there were PCs before the IBM PC. I used Zilog Z-80-based microcomputers running CP/M back in the late ’70s. But it was the IBM PC that moved PCs from things that only computer fans would use to essential parts of most business offices.
And there will still be PCs years from now. You might scoff at my proclamation about the PC’s demise, but the fact that Windows-based PCs still outsell Macs by a ratio of about 24 to 1 — PC sales of 65 million vs. 3.1 million Macs in the latest quarter — is really quite irrelevant. This isn’t a matter of Macs finally outselling Windows or Linux-based PCs. That’s never going to happen.
What has happened, though, is that Apple has earned its billions and the respect of stock-buyers by switching its focus from desktop and laptops to tablets and mobile devices.