In the early days of the personal computer, a number of manufacturers appeared with proprietary hardware, software and operating systems. Companies like Apricot, Apple, Sinclair and Commodore all...

In the early days of the personal computer, a number of manufacturers appeared with proprietary hardware, software and operating systems. Companies like Apricot, Apple, Sinclair and Commodore all introduced models which allowed computers into the home, but they were not interchangeable. IBM was one of the first companies to realise that they could not become world leaders in all the components that make up a viable PC business. As a result, the company entered into a strategic partnership with Intel, which provided the 8088 microprocessor. Similarly, Microsoft developed the ‘Disk Operating System’ (DOS) to drive the various modules and associated applications for IBM. As a result of these partnerships, Intel continues to lead the market in providing Pentium and Celeron processors to the PC market, while Microsoft offers its Windows platform as a basis for running applications and controlling increasingly sophisticated devices. Who would have guessed that it would be IBM that would suffer most from this relationship as more competitors realised they could enter the PC manufacturing business 3 but would never be able to master the microprocessor or operating system components of the PC.