As The IBM PC Turns 30, So Too Does the Modern Small Business

1981-2011   It’s 1981: 26 years before the iPhone, 23 years prior to Facebook and 10 years ahead of the World Wide Web; while some can’t fathom living without these technologies, 1981 was a culturally-significant year.  Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th president of the United States, the first recognized cases of AIDS in the U.S. were discovered in California, MTV was born and on Aug.  12, in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, Phillip 'Don' Estridge unveiled the IBM PC. The 5150 personal computer carried a price tag of $1,565 and made information technology a feasible reality for small businesses. Thirty years later, IBM reported SMBs account for $257 billion or 59% of the information technology market and claims to have SMB clients in over 170 countries. So let’s take a trip down tech memory lane. After all, without these innovations, home offices, social media, smartphones, RSA codes, clouds – the contemporary small business as we know it – wouldn’t be possible. Read the August 12, 1981 IBM press release in full