How many IBM PCs were sold

How many IBM PCs were sold

When it comes to the question of how many IBM PCs were sold, the numbers I hear are all over the place. I’ve heard 3 million, 60 million, and several numbers in between. In this blog post, I’ll uncover the reason there are so many conflicting numbers.

But if I tell you IBM initially only expected to sell 1,000 units in its first six months after its August 12, 1981 release, you probably won’t believe me.

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The first pirated MP3

The first pirated MP3

MP3 piracy was born August 10, 1996. That day, a pirate using the handle of Netfrack released a copy of Metallica’s Until it Sleeps for free download on IRC, an Internet protocol intended for chat, not file sharing.

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Netscape: The IPO that went boom on its way up and down

Netscape: The IPO that went boom on its way up and down

The early star of the dot-com boom wasn’t Amazon or Ebay, it was Netscape, a company who produced a web browser of the same name. It went boom high and it went boom fast as it rose. And when it fell, it went boom hard and loud. Its IPO on August 9, 1995 launched the dot-com bubble. In this blog post, I’ll explain why it was pretty much doomed by the time it went public.

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Why Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in 1997

Why Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in 1997

It was 28 years ago this week, on August 6, 1997, that Apple and Microsoft reached a truce, to the tune of $150 million. The whole event had a weird vibe to it and probably was just as confusing today as it is now. In this blog post, I’ll explore what was in the deal for both of them.

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Andy Warhol’s lost Amiga art found

Andy Warhol’s lost Amiga art found

Thought lost for 39 years, Andy Warhol’s pioneering Amiga art resurfaced in July 2024. Andy Warhol’s birthday, August 6, is a great day to look back at his pioneering digital art and how it came to be lost and found again. Details of the reemergence help to shed light on an earlier discovery from about a decade ago. And those details come from the very person who taught Andy Warhol how to use a computer. In this blog post, I’ll put these discoveries in context, and offer some thoughts from both an art teacher and a sales engineer.

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Radio Shack’s TRS-80: Introduced Aug 3, 1977

Radio Shack’s TRS-80: Introduced Aug 3, 1977

When Radio Shack announced its TRS-80 Model 1 on Aug 3, 1977, designer Steve Leininger thought they could sell 50,000 units. Tandy executives didn’t believe him. But the response overwhelmed the company, and 250,000 people put their money where their mouth was, paying $100 to get on a waiting list to buy one.

At the time, the median price of a Radio Shack product was $30. A TRS-80 bundled with a CRT display and tape drive cost $599 and was the most expensive product they had ever sold.

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Ebay’s 1995 debut

Ebay’s 1995 debut

The eBay domain name was registered 30 years ago today, on August 4, 1995. But the site we know today as Ebay didn’t launch until almost month later, September 3, 1995, under a different name. Auctionweb, the original name for Ebay, was a side project. From these humble beginnings came one of the few survivors of the dotcom era.

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Colecovison: the hard-luck 1982 console

Colecovison: the hard-luck 1982 console

Colecovision was a game console released by toymaker Coleco in August 1982. In the context of its era, it was reasonably successful, selling about 2 million units before being discontinued in 1985. Colecovision’s main draw was a faithful port of the arcade hit Donkey Kong, which it licensed from Nintendo. Its original retail price was $175 and it measured 14 inches by 8 inches by 2 inches (35 cm by 20 cm by 5 cm). Adjusted for inflation, it cost $581 in 2025 dollars.

Colecovision sold well at first, selling 550,000 units in 1982 and another 500,000 units in the first quarter of 1983. Its catchphrase in its advertising was “we bring the arcade experience home.”

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Windows NT 4.0: Released to Manufacturing July 31, 1996

Windows NT 4.0: Released to Manufacturing July 31, 1996

It was 29 years ago this week, on July 31, 1996, that Microsoft released Windows NT 4.0 to manufacturing. The workstation version appeared on store shelves a month later, with the server version following in September. In many ways, version 4 was a breakthrough release for the technology. Let’s take a moment to look back at what made Windows NT 4.0 such a breakthrough.

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Clive Sinclair: a US perspective

Clive Sinclair: a US perspective

Who did more than any other person in history to make computers affordable? My nomination goes to Sir Clive Sinclair, who was born on this day 85 years ago, July 30, 1940. And I’m an American who never used one of his computers.

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