Computer Packages history

Initially designed for internal use by HP employees, co-founder Bill Hewlett issues a challenge to his engineers in 1971: fit all of the features of their desktop scientific calculator into a package small enough for his shirt pocket.

1973: Robert Metcalfe, research employee at Xerox, develops Ethernet, connecting multiple computers and hardware.

The ABC was at the center of a patent dispute related to the invention of the computer, which was resolved in 1973 when it was shown that ENIAC co-designer John Mauchly had seen the ABC shortly after it became functional.

In 1973, after selling only 40 machines, Kenbak Corporation closed its doors.

In 1975, Scelbi introduced the 8B version with 16 KB of memory for the business market.

Other companies like IBM soon entered the market with computers such as the IBM PC, which first launched in 1981.

Friedl used the SCAMP prototype to gain approval within IBM to promote and develop IBM’s 5100 family of computers, including the most successful, the 5150, also known as the IBM Personal Computer (PC), introduced in 1981.

In 1984, Michael Dell creates PC's Limited while still a student of the University of Texas at Austin.

Since the release of the Macintosh in 1984, Apple has placed emphasis on high-resolution graphics and display technologies.

Dell dropped out of school to focus on his business and in 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design, the Turbo PC, which sold for $795.

Steve Jobs, forced out of Apple in 1985, founds a new company – NeXT. The computer he created, an all-black cube was an important innovation.

1986: Originally called the Special Effects Computer Group, Pixar is created at Lucasfilm.

Dubbed a “Personal Data Assistant” by Apple President John Scully in 1992, the Newton featured many of the features that would define handheld computers in the following decades.

Also in 1996 was the introduction of the Sony Vaio series.

Compaq's success launched a market for IBM-compatible computers that by 1996 had achieved an 83-percent share of the personal computer market.

OPENSTEP was used as one of the foundations for the new Mac OS operating system soon after NeXT was acquired by Apple in 1996.

1997: Microsoft invests $150 million into Apple, which ended Apple’s court case against Microsoft, saying they copied the “look and feel” of their operating system.

While it did not sell well, the operating system, Be OS, retained a loyal following even after Be stopped producing hardware in 1997 after less than 2,000 machines were produced.

The Newton line never performed as well as hoped and was discontinued in 1998.

In 1999, RIM released the very first Blackberry 850 device and quickly became the worlds fastest growing company.

Until the year 2000, it was the world's fastest supercomputer, able to achieve peak performance of 1.3 teraflops, (about 1.3 trillion calculations per second).

The Treo sold well, and the line continued until Handspring was purchased by Palm in 2003.

2005: YouTube, the popular video-sharing service, is founded by Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley.

Lenovo, China's largest manufacturer of PCs, purchased IBM's personal computer business in 2005, largely to gain access to IBM's ThinkPad line of computers and sales force.

At the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announces it will create a program to deliver technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries.

It worked to create computer-animated portions of popular films, like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It was bought by Disney in 2006.

The C64, as it is better known, sells for $595, comes with 64 KB of RAM and features impressive graphics. It is recognized by the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest selling single computer of all time.

2011: Google releases the Chromebook, a laptop that runs on Google Chrome OS.

Also in 2011, the Nest Learning Thermostat emerges as one of the first Internet of Things, allowing for remote access to a user’s home thermostat by use of their smartphone or tablet.

Also in 2012, the Raspberry Pi, a credit-card-sized single-board computer is released, weighing only 45 grams.

In 2012, Apple introduced the Retina display for the MacBook Pro laptop and iPad tablet.

Built by IBM using their Blue Gene/Q supercomputer architecture, the Sequoia system is the world's fastest supercomputer in 2012.