In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters, Second Edition

Chapter 2. FIRST MOVERS, FIRST MISTAKES: IBM, Digital Research, Apple, and Microsoft

The birth of what we now think of as high tech began in 1975 with the introduction of the Altair, the world's first affordable and practical microcomputer, from Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) of New Mexico. Units such as the French Micral and the American Scelbi were introduced prior to the Altair, but you couldn't do much with them. The brainchild of former U.S. Air Force Engineer Ed Roberts, the Altair was sold in kit form for $397.00, a price that put the unit within reach of a mass audience. Built around a powerful (for its day) 8-bit Intel ...