Macintosh vs. IBM

Essay by Anonymous UserHigh School, 12th grade December 1996

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The IBM and Macintosh computers have been in competition with each other for years, and each

of them have their strong points. They both had their own ideas about where they should go in

the personal computer market. They also had many developments, which propelled themselves

over the other.

It all started when Thomas John Watson became president of Computing Tabulating Recording

in 1914, and in 1924 he renamed it to International Business Machines Corporation. He

eventually widened the company lines to include electronic computers, which was extremely new

in those days. In 1975 IBM introduced their first personal computer (PC) which was called the

Model 5100. It carried a price tag of about $9,000 which caused it to be out of the main stream

of personal computers, even though their first computer did not get off to as big as a start they

had hoped it did not stop them from continuing on.

Later on IBM teamed up with Microsoft to

create an operating system to run their new computers, because their software division was not

able to meet a deadline. They also teamed up with Intel to supply its chips for the first IBM

personal computer. When the personal computer hit the market it was a major hit and IBM

became a strong power in electronic computers. Phoenix Technologies went through published

documentation to figure out the internal operating system (BIOS) in the IBM. In turn, they

designed a BIOS of their own which could be used with IBM computers. It stood up in courts and

now with a non IBM BIOS, the clone was created. Many manufacturers jumped in and started

making their own IBM Compatible computers, and IBM eventually lost a big share in the desktop

computers.

While IBM was just getting started in the...