The majority of us use some form of computer on a daily basis, whether this is a laptop, desktop PC or tablet PC and the idea of not being able to use one is quite alien. However, it is only over the past two decades that computers have become popular in the home.
The term was first coined in 1613 and initially described people who carried out calculations, which has obviously changed somewhat to what we associate with the modern day computer that we all use now, but it wasn’t until 1822 that the first automatic computing engine was developed.
By and large computers in the 1800s and early 1900s were used for work and business purposes only, with IBM not introducing the first personal computer until 1981 and the first desktop computer being introduced in 1968.
By the late 1980s home computers were becoming increasingly popular but packaged software wasn’t always available so people had to learn computer programming (thank goodness we don’t have to do that now), and the majority of the components and peripherals were sold separately instead of as a package and they were very different to those that were used in the workplace.
Nowadays the majority of homes have at least one computer, or at least one tablet PC, and we’re able to download, install and update any software that we need to. Also, generally speaking the computers that we use at work are fundamentally the same as what we would personally use.
Ebuyer.com, the online electrical retailer, has produced an infographic on the History of the Computer. Read on to find out more.
