Home Computer

The history of the home computer provides an example of how a technology once felt to be far removed from the home and everyday patterns of life was subsequently developed, promoted, and embraced—indeed consumed—as a product. For many, the home computer continues to mediate a wide range of consumer activities from e-commerce to online gaming.

The home computer consists of a technology originally called a microcomputer to distinguish it from the larger minicomputer and mainframe computer. The most well-known brand is IBM's Personal Computer (PC), based on Microsoft software, and hence these devices are sometimes referred to as PCs, using the brand name as a generic one. In many developed countries, the majority of households now have a home computer, although even here adoption reflects sociodemographics such as age (fewer machines used by the older population) and socio-economic status (fewer used by those with lower socioeconomic status).

In the early 1970s, a variety of individuals, including some working within information technology (IT) companies, had been building prototypes of “small” computers—ranging from the size of a desk to that of a large television. But in general, there were industry doubts about whether there would be any widespread interest in using such devices. This was in large part because the main trajectory of development in the computer field was toward larger, faster, and more powerful machines, not smaller ones that could do less (the exception being minicomputers whose real-time operation offered a different functionality to mainframes). Hence, most of the original interest in the possibilities offered by a microcomputer, a machine one could personally own and even build for oneself, came from the electronic hobbyist community. This included some working within the computer industry such as the later founders of Apple.

U.S. hobbyist magazines portrayed computing as a new frontier for these enthusiasts, and the first kit microcomputer to be sold within this community was the Altair in 1975. By the late 1970s, these machines were being sold for educational and business purposes, and in 1981, IBM launched its PC, using Microsoft's operating system. While its success and that of other machines using this system helped establish the product within these markets, there were still doubts in the consumer electronics field about whether there would ever be a market specifically for a “home” computer, whether it would [Page 741]be useful in that setting, although some hardware companies such as Tandy, Texas Instruments, and Commodore persevered in trying to create this market. As had happened decades earlier in the case of radios, the design of microcomputers had by now changed, initially with the Apple computer, to make them aesthetically more attractive than the original hobbyist machines that looked more like pieces of technical equipment.

The history of home computers varied slightly in different countries. For example, in the United Kingdom, Sinclair brought out the ZX80 and then ZX81, much cheaper than contemporary U.S. machines and marketed as machines to learn about computing. One key use of home computers in the early 1980s that helped to establish the product in the home was game playing, where the home computer took some of the market dominated by games consoles. In fact, in the United Kingdom, it took a decade before game playing was replaced by word processing as the major use.

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