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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week July
21, 2005 |
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History
of the Microcomputer Revolution - Part 10 - The Killer Application By 1979
there were lots of microcomputers and a fair number of software programs,
including word processing and accounting programs. The industry was somewhat
standardized on an operating system - CP/M - although there were notable
exceptions like Radio Shack and Apple, and the Apple II had emerged as an
industry star, with its sound, graphics, and sleek design. But these programs
duplicated what was already existing on mainframe
and minicomputers, and in a horse race - micros really were out of the
running. What the
industry needed was a Killer application - a software program that would let
a microcomputer do something the other bigger computers couldn't do, and a
MIT graduate named Dan Bricklin - came up with an
idea of creating a program designed for generic business applications that
would let people work with numbers on a microcomputer; build financial
models, and have the computer do all the calculating. What will our profit be
if we sell 10,000 widgets at fifty cents each? What if our inventory expenses
rise suddenly? The
concept was the traditional accounting worksheet with its rows and columns,
except that everything would be magically hooked together - so that if a
value in one row changed - any other values it effected
would automatically be recalculated and changed. This would be a calculator
program that would show you visibly onscreen the results - hence he named it Visicalc... The
market for it - was virtually every small business in the world. Even though big
corporations had big computers, there was a tremendous backlog in submitting
jobs and getting work back - weeks, months, even years. Rather than depending
on centralized data processing departments, across the country thousands of
corporate midmanagers were doing it themselves -
working with traditional paper spreadsheets to create reports such as
forecasts and budgets. In a few
months Bricklin had a finished product designed
specifically for Apple computers. The market response was incredible, because
this was not just computer hardware and software - it was a complete business
solution. Managers could buy an Apple II with Visicalc,
bring it into their departments, and immediately increase their productivity.
Budgets and forecasts that traditionally took weeks could now be done in
hours. Word
spread so quickly and so many people recognized the productivity potential
that people would walk into computer stores asking for a Visicalc
system, as if it was all one thing. This was the true killer application that
launched the pc industry . Visicalc was soon modified to run on other microcomputers; Radio
Shack at first, then others, and of course it was sold with the original IBM PC . But the most significant point here is that people
were buying a ready made solution and microcomputers were beginning to
infiltrate American corporations by the thousands. This was a case of the
tail wagging the dog - a hundred dollar piece of software was selling a two
thousand dollar computer, and sales increased exponentially into the
millions. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2005 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa
99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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