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In 2001, 125 million personal computers were shipped in comparison to 48,000 in 1977. More than 500 million PCs were in use in 2002 and one billion personal computers had been sold worldwide since mid-1970s till this time. Of the latter figure, 75 percent were professional or work related, while the rest sold for personal or home use.
Mature markets like the United States, Western Europe and Japan accounted for 58% of the worldwide installed PCs. The emerging markets were expected to double their installed PCs by 2012 and to take 70% of the second billion PCs. About 180 million computers (16% of the existing installed base) were expected to be replaced and 35 million to be ...
The disk drives sold with the Commodore 128, Amiga, and Atari ST were all able to read and write PC disks, which themselves were undergoing the transition from 5.25" to 3.5" format at the time (though 5.25" drives remained common on PCs until the late 1990s, due to existence of the large software and data archives on five-inch floppies). 5.25 ...
R2E CCMC Portal laptop. The portable microcomputer "Portal", of the French company R2E Micral CCMC, officially appeared in September 1980 at the Sicob show in Paris.The Portal was a portable microcomputer designed and marketed by the studies and developments department of the French firm R2E Micral in 1980 at the request of the company CCMC specializing in payroll and accounting.
Many IBM PCs remained in service long after their technology became largely obsolete. For instance, as of June 2006 (23–25 years after release) IBM PC and XT models were still in use at the majority of U.S. National Weather Service upper-air observing sites, processing data returned from radiosondes attached to weather balloons.
Many early microcomputers were available in Electronic kit form. Machines were sold in small numbers, with final assembly by the user. Kits took advantage of this by offering the system at a low price point. Kits were popular, beginning in 1975, with the introduction of the famous Altair 8800, but as sales volumes increased, kits became less ...
The 1980s saw the minicomputer age plateau as PCs were introduced. Manufacturers such as IBM, DEC and Hewlett-Packard continued to manufacture 14-inch hard drive systems as industry demanded higher storage; one such drive is the 1980 2.52 GB IBM 3380. But it was clear that smaller Winchester storage systems were eclipsing large platter hard drives.
While desktops have long been the most common configuration for PCs, [9] by the mid-2000s the growth shifted from desktops to laptops. [10] Notably, while desktops were mainly produced in the United States, laptops had long been produced by contract manufacturers based in Asia, such as Foxconn. This shift led to the closure of the many desktop ...